Pretend Fancy

Slipcovering for the Simpletons

2012-02-22T11:29:00.001-08:00

And by simpleton, I mean myself. I have admitted freely that I am not a sewist. I wish I were. I can mostly sew a semi straight line, but that's about it.

exhibit A, the floral chair

I have a chair I bought on Craigslist a while back and I had grand plans of trying to recover it myself. It's actually in really great shape, but I wasn't sure about the floral pattern. So I brought it home and finally realized that despite how easy those slipcovering people try to tell you it is, let's face it, some of us are sewers and some of us are...not.

So imagine my extreme thrill of finding a slipcover at Goodwill. I liked the fabric and it was three bucks. I figured I couldn't lose, even if it didn't fit.

I got it home and the thing of the jig of it is that it ALMOST fit. And that was worse than it fitting horribly! It was so dang close and I was frustrated.

So I took a deep breath, got some pins and my sharp scissors, and decided to try and make it a bit more fitted. I figured I was out three bucks if it didn't work.

My friends, it worked! I won't call it perfect, but I will call it pretty darn good for a Non-Sewing Genius like me. Or as we call it around here, it's a whole lotta Pretend Fancy going on.

Here you can see the bagginess. This slipcover was like those kids wearing their jeans down around their derriere and their underpants up around their midsection. It's just not cool.

Come to think of it, my arms kinda look like this too heh. A little flappy for my taste (the slipcover that is. I decided long ago if I had to choose between flappy arms and chocolate donuts, I would take the donuts). I digress.

A little snip, a little tuck. This beauty got plastic surgery for free. She didn't check my credentials, lucky for her it turned out alright....

I pinned and (gasp, this part was the hard part) got up the guts to cut the extra fabric.


Voila! She sits a little taller. And she feels all pretty and young now. I personally think she might try to date a younger ottoman with her new boost in ego.

p.s. You know the rest of my house is a wreck right? You also know that little bunny and flowers and everything is going away as soon as the baby gets up from his nap? Let's keep it real folks. This kinda pretty only lasts til the clock strikes midnight.

ramble ramble

2012-02-20T18:56:00.000-08:00

I don't have anything fancy to say except for the fact that I have a new niece named Megan and she is cute. I also have been busy trying to sew a slipcover for my old gross ottoman (to mixed results). We hung some beadboard wallpaper in the kids bathroom along one wall tonight (looks good so far). Also, Grant managed to scrape his face up on a basket that holds toys a few days ago. I am starting to get super paranoid about how much he manages to injure himself/be injured while in my care (well in my defense, the basket incident happened on Dad's watch), but I recently closed two of his fingers into the van door, and that was the worst. It of course happened the day after we got his stitches out and I cried more than he did and rushed him to the Urgent Care center (no broken bones, and he started clapping and smiling ten minutes after it happened), but still, I felt like the worst mom in america. Poor Grant, is it just my baby that seems to be getting hurt so often lately? I think it's the walking so young thing.

And on a completely different note, I decided against having someone paint our living room in trade for a photo session because I'm a complicated woman. I also found a chair cover at Goodwill for my flower chair. Things are a'happenin' in my living room I tell you. It's just taking me a while to get them to a place that I really love.

Well I'm just rambling on about nothing much. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to have a Cadbury caramel egg and watch some dumb girl show. I have priorities people.

better late than never

2012-02-17T08:48:00.000-08:00

I forgot to post some pictures of Maddy and her little preschool best buddy decorating valentine's cupcakes. this will be the most boring post in the world unless you love pictures of little kids decorating baked goods. so sorry. but...if you want to feel hungry, feel free to keep reading, there's a scrumptious photo of a cupcake ahead.

gotta love the funny faces

and the hygienic "licking everything covered in frosting" poses

ahhhh, the glorious mountain o' sprinkles shot.

the cutest of cuties

You are not allowed

2012-02-15T06:34:00.000-08:00

to make fun of anything in this video, including but not limited to my singing, my playing abilities, or the fact that I am even posting this. :) We all know this is nerdy in the extreme, but I present my first ukelele song, while my son does whatever he wants in the fore and background. Enjoy :)

(note this is mostly for my sister and mom. I know they will both crack up over this).

Changing

2012-02-14T21:42:00.000-08:00

I felt the need to change my photography "business" name. (I put business in parenthesis because it is so part time I hardly consider it that, but I digress). My old blog was having issues and I just decided to start with a clean slate (except I moved all of my old content to the new blog). I'm excited. It's cute and I like the name more. Feel free to jump over and tell me what you think, I posted some new pictures today.

Delovely Photography

I'm pretty excited about it. And pretty tired (because of all of those old blog issues that I kept trying to fix.) Goodnight!

walkabout, valentine's edition

2012-02-14T13:21:00.001-08:00

She posed like this all by herself after putting on a bunch of rings she got from her Valentine's preschool party. She looks like she has been watching QVC or something

It reminds me of Napoleon Dynamite. Think of a thousand baby sea horses....

I just liked her tiara in this one.

Another preschool project

and her preschool goody bag. I just thought it was cute, sorry to bore you all with stuff your kids do everyday too. I gotta post these photos somewhere don't I?

The Valentine butterfly she made us. We took turns licking the lollipop. Just kidding

We got this little mailbox for three bucks at the consignment store and we put little love notes in it at night (when we remembered....if we forgot, we got in big trouble) a few days before V day.

and some randomly adorable pictures of this guy

because frankly he just doesn't get enough face time on this blog

and a face like that deserves his fair share of face time!

oh yeah, we totally did the heart pancake thing this morning. don't be impressed. I bought a new-fangled thing I found at the grocery store where you pour the water into the bottle and shake and then pour it onto the griddle. wow, it was awesome (and lazy) and again, awesome

cause nothing says love like pancakes

except for a ukelele. I asked John for one for Christmas and I think he thought I was joking, so he didn't get me one....and then I was sad. ha! So he made up for it and I've been playing around with it all day. my fingers hurt and I can play amazing grace pretty darn well. hey, I am impressed with myself--playing a song the same day I got the uke (you can only call it uke if you are an awesome ukelele player like myself, fyi)

why yes, cupid came and threw up glitter and hearts and other garish things on our table. you gotta be garish when you have little kids, they love it

i kinda love it too

John wrote our names in his wanna-be calligraphy. fancy

the perfect card for Maddy

the Valentine's card she made me this morning (that is her, me and John). grant apparently doesn't rank high enough on her list to have made the cut. hmm

She got a kite for Valentine's day. John got a box of chocolates that had Darth Vader on front (severely awesome) and a promise that he can have my phone (once he sells his and we buy me a different one). He has been (kinda) silently pining away for my phone.

And I'm also thinking if I have time that I will post our engagement story, because it's pretty awesome and I have never written it down. ta-ta!

in a nutshell

2012-02-13T09:40:00.000-08:00

Interesting weekend for us over here. In a nutshell:

dishwasher broke.

made John watch a youtube video about installing another dishwasher to see if he thought he could do it.

he thinks he can do it so we buy a used dishwasher on craigslist for cheap.

everything that can go wrong (too short of hose etc.) goes wrong, but John perseveres and we have a working dishwasher again. love that man.

john took the kids with him on Saturday to run errands (read, buy me a Valentine's gift) :) so that I could run a few other errands. I call him in the middle of running my errands we both realize that we are at the same mall and I meet him at the play area.

i steal french fries from john's plate and think how romantic I think it is that we ended up at the same place at the same time and called each other not knowing it. I'm a dork like that.

worked really hard around the house. except we forgot to weed the front, which we need to do because our HOA will send ninjas in the night to kill us in our beds. or something like that.

talked about our budget. we are trying really doubly hard to be good right now because we are still recovering from not having a job for about a month. with the exception of Grant's stitches sans insurance and the dishwasher, we're doing pretty good. but make no mistake, budgets (ESPECIALLY when you get paid every week--which requires an exceptional amount of extra planning) are hard. please tell me you hate budgeting as much as I do??

thinking about doing another amazing and cheap project. you know me.

random thought thursday

2012-02-09T12:34:00.000-08:00

idea for random thought thursday from emily of course. :)

We still haven't finished our pinterest

cooking experiments. Tonight we are having

chicken cordon bleu from

the crockpot. I have my doubts

but I love chicken cordon bleu so much

I am willing to be my own guinea pig.

********

(this is a surprisingly difficult shot to get btw, but I LOVE how it turned out)

I finally finished editing the pictures

to my most recent photo shoot. It took up

two cds to burn all of the pictures.

It is clear that I have a problem putting

a limit on the number of pictures I give. Ugh.

*************

Grant took a morning nap

and is now taking an afternoon nap.

As you can imagine, the angels are singing.

**************

I bought a slip for Maddy because

she says her sunday dresses rub her skin and hurt.

I had a slip when I was little, but apparently

they are not normal anymore because I had to

go to a ton of stores to find one. Did you wear a slip growing up?

*************

I am sick of cold cereal in the morning. What do you eat?
If you are one of those crazy people who drinks green spinach
smoothies in the morning, don't tell me.
I have a green smoothie inferiority complex.
(ok, really, I just think you people are weird
and you will never convince me that
you actually crave it more than eggs and toast).

****************

I really want to buy this dress for Maddy for Easter. It's

a Janie and Jack confection, and it is super expensive. So...

yeah, we'll be finding something else.

Why can't I sew again??

*****************

A friend recently told me I am

"a little weird"

when it comes to accepting invitations to social gatherings.

I laughed about it at the time

but then got home and thought,

hey, wait, what?

No seriously, I don't get it.

How can you be weird at that? Don't you either

just say yes, or no?

Huh?

*****************

Lastly, my sister's due date

is next Friday.

They haven't picked out a name yet.

They are waiting to see the baby to decide.

I LOVE it when people do that

(probably because that's what we did?).

Anyone out there have a name picked out

before meeting the baby? Did

you feel like it fit when you saw them?

*******************

Obviously, Emily's list are way pithier and cooler. Heh, it's

Thursday at 3:23 in the afternoon.

Take what you can get people. I don't

do awesome during this time of day.

I do survival.

See ya!

Extreme Home Makeover: Tiny Watercloset Edition

2012-02-06T08:05:00.000-08:00

This bathroom had a case of the blahs. It felt sorry for itself every morning when it looked in the mirror.

It asked itself, "Bathroom, when did you just stop caring anymore? Why don't you even try to look nice? Even when company comes over, you're just so blah." I wanted to help this poor bathroom have better self esteem. We started with a stern talking to, and then went straight to the make-up.

Bathroom started getting a little freaked out when I put a few coats of color on, just so she could see. She didn't trust me at first (uh, I didn't trust me at first either, don't tell Bathroom).

Source: pinterest.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

But I showed her the "pinspiration" photo. I told her we might not look exactly like this super model edition, but we would do our best.

So we used some wood we had on hand, and we bought some clearanced Target breadbaskets (5 dollars each)

We got a tiny mirror from Walmart for four dollars. And we stole some stuff from around the house.

We made some shelves.

And wham! Bathroom's got a new attitude. She is sassy now. Bow chicka bow wow.

I even took down those disgraceful tiny mirrors and put a huge one in their place, just so bathroom can appreciate herself more now.

Let this be a lesson to us all. A little make-over can go a long way. (and yes, that is a frame around a real mirror. I thought it was awesome that it happened to fit, so I left it. Hopefully the mirror police don't find out).

P.O.D.

2012-02-02T18:54:00.000-08:00

Picture of the day. Love how this turned out. It is really pretty in color too--this little girl has the most beautiful eyes.

Now, back to editing. I will finish these soon if it kills me.

2012-01-31T18:16:00.000-08:00

I have felt busy this past week. My brother-in-law has been staying with us and somehow this has filled up my time having him around. He actually has been very instrumental in letting me get lots done while he watches and plays with the kids. It's been great. I wish I could hire him as my manny. (that's a guy that's a nanny, for my Mom who doesn't talk the lingo). I'm super young and super hip, so I got to keep my Mom up-to-date....okay I saw it on a hallmark movie. I'm not sure if it's even a thing. You caught me.

My Manny Joey and my gadget obsessed one year old

Anyway, the point is, I completely switched everything from the last post up. Just when you got all attached and everything I know. I'm sorry, I am a creature of change. I just love it. Mostly I have decided that I want my life to be as clean and white and non-cluttered as possible. This is not really super possible with two little kids, but I am doing my best to just get rid of extra stuff, and it feels good. I still feel like I have a ways to go--how come kids toys seem to get out of hand SO dang easily?? I swear I just went through their stuff.

Source: closetcooking.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Also, you should probably be aware that this is the week of pinterest food. I decided that since I have a temporary manny that I can have time to cook new and fattening things. I will have to go on a detox super diet afterwards, but that's okay. Tonight we had artichoke dip encrusted bread. It was amazing. Seriously so so so good. Everyone loved it except for Maddy who doesn't love anything that is not a hot dog or a macaroni covered in cheese. Coming up next are: the best burger in the world (so says the recipe, I intend to find out for YOU!), Cafe Rio Pork Salad, and lots of crockpot recipes that look good.

Have you tried anything recently from pinterest that was delicious?

Lastly, in a completely not related note, I started composing a blog post in my head while I was driving. I only belatedly realized that I might be weird for doing that. Interestingly, it was not the post I am writing now. I started separating the difficult experiences that I have had in my life into things that either A. made me tougher, and B. made me more vulnerable. The surprising thing I realized while doing this is that most things ended up on both lists. I'll give you some examples:

Tougher                                                                  More Vulnerable

Being a mother                                                               Being a mother

Going through my parents divorce                                 Going through my parents divorce

etc. etc. etc.

It was a break through and I immediately wanted to share it with all of you. But it probably deserve it's own write up, and it's probably too boring/introspective/personal, and I am trying to be ALL about the boundaries. So...maybe that's enough. Have you thought of your experiences in that way before? Interesting. Also, I just realized that if I googled strong and tough, it would probably bring up toilet paper pictures. So....take what you will from this hodge podge of information. ha!

Huh I just don't know

2012-01-28T20:38:00.000-08:00

I will start this post by saying that I have put off posting anything about this room because frankly it still kind of seems off to me. It isn't jiving with the elusive picture in my head that even I can't quite seem to pinpoint. So it's a work in progress. But here are some before shots.

The bookshelf after I took off most of the books.

Sadly, what John's desk looked like before I did this major purge. Now it is doing better.

So I found these little shelf jobbies at Goodwill. I think they are actually intentioned for shoes. They reminded me of a Pottery Barn picture that I saw. If you squint really hard, you might think they were meant for this purpose.

I just like anything in a jar. Somehow the jar just elevates the mundane.

I tried my hand at a gallery wall, and I think that is what just doesn't feel quite finished/done right to me. But I really loved hanging these pictures my sister gave me for Christmas. She always gets me the best presents. She is like a present psychic. She knows what I want before I even know I want it. It's pretty much awesome.


While visiting the great north, I got to go to Ikea. I bought one of these and created an "art center" for Maddy. That is what she dubbed it and she loves it. She literally uses it every single day. Those cups of markers must be magic.

I bought some nice pens a while ago and now I have a little twirly pen holder that I like to twirl around on my desk.

Oh yeah, here is a big picture. Hmm. Like I said, I just don't know. I put the little table down here so Maddy could have a place to play with her playsets (like the ginormously awesome pyramid). But it makes it look more cluttered. Hmm.

This bookcase still needs work. But...not too horrible. It might get some books back.

Oh little beat up school chairs, you will be with me forever. Don't ask me why I put that wire basket on top. It has no actual value besides looking pretty.

Remember how beauteous this wall was during Christmas?

Well then I had to take down the christmasy wreaths and it looked a little sad. I knew that would happen of course, and figured I would find something else to fill. I am still feeling a bit on the fence about my fix. What is it with me lately?? I usually just do something and then love it. This indecision is nerdy and I would like to banish it.

Here is what I have decided so far: keep the adorable silhouettes of my darlings, keep the cool country pitcher, get rid of everything else. Wellll, not get rid of, just moved around to other parts of the house. The white table was too low without the wreaths filling in space, and frankly wasn't that functional of a piece.

So...I got all big for my britches and thought that I should add some fancy gallery lighting. Here is the thing about getting too big for your britches when you're on a budget...sometimes you can still see cords. Yeah. I hate cords too. I'm sorry friends. But I am buying some cord covers. You want to see anyway?

You see, my new goal was to try and be more simple with my decor. I don't like a lot of clutter. I think that's what kind of bugs me about the gallery wall...it's cute, but it's more cluttery looking. But then...when I look at pictures of my house looking more simple I think, huh....it looks unfinished. I just haven't figured it out yet.

I really like the lighting (ikea), but those dang cords. I'm hoping the cord covers will help.

Tried to go for simple

but maybe it just looks boring...I think the problem is the lamp. Well, I am trying to use what I have, so maybe I'll do a little lamp switcheroo.

And to finish up this post of house fixings, I decided to go for that dark blue wall. We worked on it today while baby boy recovered from getting stitches yesterday (which I am forbidding myself to write about because it was the worst thing ever). But he is doing better today. And the bathroom is doing better. So, I think that means we are on up and up my friends.

up next, I will finally blog about the baby boy's first birthday. Poor second children, they get the late birthday posts and the stitches. I am feeling sorry for that kid big time today.

love a crying baby (when it's not mine hehe)

2012-01-26T09:01:00.000-08:00

I had completely forgotten that I took a bunch of pictures of my cousin and her adorable baby while I visited them in Florida (back before the whole job fiasco). I uploaded pictures from my camera and found all sorts of gems. But first, my adorable cousin. Poor baby was teething and I only got a handful of him looking relatively happy, but I still love them, especially the crying baby one. :)

hmming and hawings

2012-01-24T09:36:00.000-08:00

Things to do (instead of wasting time writing a blog post, but whatever):

make my bed
do the dishes
tidy up the rest of the house
play with kids interspersed the chores
feed the kids interspersed the chores
finish washing clothes, sheets, towels
make guest bed for John's brother who is coming today and staying for a while
take a shower?
make dinner
spray paint this shelf thingy that I got at Goodwill a while ago
decide if I'm going to take the plunge and paint one wall of my tiny bathroom dark navy blue, based on this inspiration photo (we are definitely doing the shelves in our own cheap hack way). I have never been scared of paint, but navy blue scares me. Scares me people!

Source: pinterest.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

My major concern is that this toilet was custom built with that fabulous molding behind it and I think it would look bad if I painted navy blue all the way down to the floor--I feel that it would not capture this look. So...I am weighing my options. I am considering beadboard wallpaper (pros: cheap, easy, cute. cons: might look weird in my miniscule water closet because there is no beadboard in the main bathroom). I am also considering doing faux molding like we did in Maddy's old room in Tooele. (pros: easy, cheap, potentially look a lot like picture. Cons: again might look weird in tiny room, and can't decide if I should just do it on one wall?)

Okay, so there's a glimpse into my really indecisive mind. If you have opinions you may leave them. Or better yet, if you have a new idea let me know. Just don't tell me you hate the inspiration photo. I'm on the line as it is people, I need good stuff!

Over and out. :)

the post in which I use honey buns incorrectly

2012-01-22T21:17:00.000-08:00

It was a super busy weekend around here. We babysat, we ran lots of errands, I picked my friend Meredith (college roomie) up from the airport and went for a late night Denny's rendevous, we went to a Star Wars nerd party, and we tried to keep our kids on nap schedules. Busy busy. I was quite proud of the Star Wars costumes John and I came up with in about five minutes. I wish I could regale you with pictures, but I was Princess Leia (again, this was a revival role that I also took up in college for Halloween). I don't have very long hair anymore, so I was a bit stumped for how to recreate Leia's signature buns (cause otherwise you're just wearing a white sheet with a belt....). I came up with the idea to glue these:

to each side of a headband. It turned out even more delicious and amazing than I imagined. I'm thinking about trying this hairdo out on a Fasting Sunday sometime. ha. :)

Well I'm sorry to say that's all I've got for you today. I'm tired. It's been a long weekend with lots of errands, and today I worked on pictures and now it's time to go to bed. But you know what? It was a really good weekend. It feels like forever since I've said that, doesn't it? It feels sooooo good to be a Debbie Upper for once. Or whatever they call the optimistic version of Debbie Downer.

slow poke

2012-01-18T18:20:00.000-08:00

Just had to pop on for a funny Maddy moment today. She is a tortuously slow eater (well it tortures me, who has to sit there until she is finished to make sure she gets something into her rapidly getting taller body). I have to constantly tell her, "less talking, more chewing!" and I think she is starting to understand that she is a bit of a slow eater because she looked over at John and said, "Daddy, you're a fast eater. Me? Well I'm just a slow pope!"

We got a good laugh out of that. I love four year olds.

Random-ola

2012-01-17T19:38:00.000-08:00

I've been cleaning and organizing the bejeezus out of my house lately. It feels great. It's like opening your windows and letting fresh air into every room. I have gotten rid of a lot of stuff. Sure, everything I got rid of I still mostly liked--but it felt like it was holding me down. I want a cleaner, less cluttered look. I hate tchotchkes (uh yes I had to look up that word to know how to spell it correctly. Did you know it is Yiddish in origin. Somehow, that makes sense as I picture a little Yiddish matchmaker lady saying it. Something like, "Get rid of the tchotchkes from your yentil or I'll kavitch you.")

Anyway, in the wise words of the Yiddish, I'm cleaning up my yentils and it feels great. All of the sheets are getting freshly washed. All of the bath mats are getting in on the warm sudsy action. I'll probably even get to the floorboards at some point.

Hey, I can't help it. I don't want to be kavitched. This post is turning out really random. Might as well finish it in true random style and steal Emily Foley's random thought thursday idea (minus the Thursday).

Why didn't anyone tell me that my life was incomplete? I never heard Adele's song Set Fire to the Rain. Holy.

****

I have been writing myself To Do lists, and I am surprised how much such a dumb thing motivates me. Is that weird?

****

I used to hate the taste of Coke (we weren't allowed to drink it growing up). John loves it and I'll take small sips of his Diet Coke and now I kinda like it, but not enough to drink an entire one. Just enough to take a few sips.

****

I started a book club today. The first meeting is going to be at the end of February. I am SO excited. It's time to get my book club mojo back on. Now I need to think of an amazing name for it, since The Finer Things Book Club has been done. Suggestions?

****

I never add people as friends on facebook, I'm too shy. If I do, it usually means that I really like you. And also, it means I'm pretty sure you won't say no. ha. How about you? Do you add anyone and everyone, or do you wait around for people to add you mostly?

****

I still really love toast. It is a love affair that just has never ended for me. Toast, you complete me.

****

Why do I always seem to hit weird buttons with my ear on my smartphone? Why does this not seem to happen to anyone else? Is my ear smart, or...am I dumb? Wait, don't answer that one.

****

My baby is a bottomless pit. I seriously think he walks around hungry, even though I feel like I feel like I am feeding him constantly. I worry for my budget when he is a teenager. But I am super happy that he is now drinking milk instead of super expensive liquid formula.

****

What instrument do you secretly wish you could play? I begged John for a ukelele for Christmas, but I think he thought I was kidding so I didn't get one. ha! I actually really wish I could play the piano, but I'm not dedicated enough to sit down and really learn it. Plus, I don't have a piano. I also wish I could play other old people instruments like the dulcimer, the mandolin, and the normal guitar.

(see what I mean about Old lady instrument? I think those bonnets are a requirement to play a dulcimer....)

how to succeed at fancy without even trying.

2012-01-17T18:42:00.000-08:00

I call it LimoNOTa.

Glass bottle=fancy.

Go forth and fancify.

let me be amazing at you

2012-01-15T20:32:00.000-08:00

I had written a completely different post, but deleted the entire thing because I somehow ended up on my old blog reading about our year last year. Oh.My.Gosh. We had a hard year. I actually had to stop reading my blog because I was starting to feel anxious again ha!

It made me grateful to be starting a new year, with a fresh start. You know, things rarely end up the way we think they will and for me, that gets hard to accept sometimes. I spent the entire past year wondering why I felt like we should move here--felt like everything bad that happened was somehow connected to us being in South Carolina. I felt so mad at myself.

But now, I see that the anger is pointless. Sometimes, life is just rough. We all have years that we want to fast foward, and we all have moments that we swear will break our spirits. I have been through some of those moments this year. It has been very hard. I am finally feeling like I can really talk about how deeply these hardships affected me. I feel a bit bruised and battered. I wish I could say that I have been incredibly inspiring in my reactions to some of our trials this year, but mostly I was just trying to survive. I didn't have time to think about being amazing. :)

When the new year started, I thought I needed to get myself back to the person that I was before all of these hard things. I want to be that nerd that thought that spray painting was the answer to the worlds problems. I wanted to be the girl who didn't think twice about putting all sorts of personal stuff on her blog, because she believed in the goodness of people and felt like honesty was the same as transparency in your personal life.

And honestly, of course you've realized this before me, it just isn't possible to get that girl back. I shouldn't even wish for it, because I have learned some valuable lessons. I've learned that I need to self-edit a bit more (still painfully learning this one actually). I've learned that just because bad things are happening to me, it doesn't mean that I'm a bad person--it doesn't mean I'm being punished for something. I've learned that sometimes you have to be happy with just enough. In fact, you should always be glad for just enough, because just enough means that it isn't too little. I've learned that as much as I wished that I was spectacularly good at something, I am just pretty good and a bunch of little things-- and it's okay that they aren't even very fancy things. It's okay that I'm not great at photography, I am pretty good at loving people. It's okay that I'm not a professional decorator, because I am pretty good at making Maddy's favorite sandwich. I'm over-emotional, bossy, irreverent, eager to please, chubby, impatient, and I love to be right. I have to work on those. But there are good things too, and I can work on those just as lovingly.

I thank God that I have another year to become another girl by this time next year. I hope this year I will spend a bit less of it surviving and have more time for contemplating (as Tiny Fey said it) "being amazing at you."

they don't keep

2012-01-11T18:50:00.000-08:00

Poor Grant was really not feeling good today. It's been a rough couple of weeks for him health-wise, but it seems like it came to head today. Poor guy. He is usually Mr. Independence (and Mr. Smiley, a winning combination), but today he snuggled into my shoulder several times and fell asleep. Perched like a tiny snuggled sad baby bird.

not the best quality cell phone picture, but the adorableness shines through.

And even though I could have put him straight into his crib, I sat and rocked and rocked and rocked. I rubbed his back. I kissed his soft head.

I love you Grant, until my heart wants to burst I love you. I love that when your independence no longer serves you, you finally turn to Mommy, because that is where I always want to be--waiting to fold you into my arms so tight. You're growing up. And someday you'll be thirty and rocking your baby, and you will know how full my heart was today.

The cleaning and scrubbing

will wait till tomorrow,

for Children grow up,

as I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down, cobwebs.

Dust go to sleep.

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep

isn't it ionic

2012-01-10T18:50:00.000-08:00

Y'all. I just grabbed my hairdryer to dry my hair really fast this evening when I noticed a button on the top of the nozzle I had never noticed before (because seriously, why did they even put a button up there to begin with??)

It said, in solemn typeface, ION SWITCH, OFF or ON.

Why didn't anyone tell me I've been walking around without ionized hair all these years?? The shame. The embarassment. The...ions!...Well no more.

I switched it to the on position. That's right, I just changed my laser from stun....to kill. Mwahahahaha.

2012-01-09T18:01:00.000-08:00

tonight I'm not blogging about anything I should blog about, you know like Christmas or stuff like that. I just want to blog about whatever I feel like. For example, I really like this picture I took.

Isn't she cute? I love her freckles and her sweet smile.

I love that I just found this song by The Shins. They have a new album coming out tomorrow. Woo woo!

I like tickling my kids and getting down on the floor and playing with them. Even though doing so makes me want to fall asleep on the carpet. Why does that always happen?

I cleaned out my desks (one mine, one John's) and reorganized the front room again. It's a sickness. But it looks great and is a really function room. That makes me happy.

I should mention that I should be OUTLAWED from facebook from the hours between 3-5. That is when I am counting down the time until John gets back from work. Especially when the kids are sick. So there...I will try to restrain myself. I find that is when I make my most negative comments on that place. Bad Jenn.

I set a HUGE goal for myself. It's not a new years resolution or anything, because I set it before the year ended. But if I do it, I am going to take a really amazingly awesome trip. No seriously I am. I already talked to John about it. Just gotta start saving my pennies and working on my goal. I am still toying around with where I want to go, but I can't get this place out of my head, as cliched as it is.

Source: notetosarah.tumblr.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Of course my lifelong dream has been to travel here:

Source: google.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

That is Salzburg. But I want to take that trip with John. This trip would probably just have to be me because of the cost. But since I'm living on dreams anyway, maybe we'll both go.

Don't ask what the goal is, that's like asking what someone wished on their birthday candles. I'm superstitious like that.

Source: Uploaded by user via Jennifer on Pinterest

And here is a really great quote to keep me inspired. It's easy to feel judged and in despair. But who wants to be around that person? I want to keep my chin up. I'm trying, by golly it's hard sometimes, but I am one to keep trying to get back on that saddle. I am a people pleaser, but that can back-fire sometimes when you have a soft heart. But...I know my friends are still out there, reading--my old roommates, my Tooele book club friends, my family, my blogging buddies. I hope you forgive my lapses in happiness this year. It's been a rough one. But I am fighting for this year to be better and more optimistic, but also authentic. What are you hoping for in this coming year? Do you have some pie in the sky goals and rewards for yourself? Did you organize your drawers and feel ten pounds lighter? Are your kids sick and you spend your day trying to keep them distracted and hydrated with brightly colored popsicles? Do tell.

a mysterious mystery

2012-01-08T13:34:00.000-08:00

Remember me?

I'm still around, but I'm taking a blogging break. Sometimes you just need a chance to clear your head. I find that avoiding technology (except for checking on my favorite blogs/people via facebook of course!) is a good way to do that for me.

The good news? If you didn't hear, my husband got a new job and already started on the 4th of January. We are SO grateful. We know we are very lucky and blessed. So far he likes it.

Other good news is that we got to go to my Mom's house for a week around Christmas. It really helped being around other people to forget our problems. It was also really good luck because that is when we finally got a job offer. :)

So, I'm lying low a little bit longer. The baby is sick and I am still readjusting to life post-holidays, but I'll be back soon.

p.s.we have been getting some really fun/funny stuff in the mail lately. Crayons shaped like rocks...a necklace with a globe on it. It is mysterious! Is it you?? Who done it?? Thank you!

Warm Wishes from the South

2011-12-24T07:49:00.000-08:00

Everyone is doing cute recaps of their year, and it make me think back over our year. The fact of the matter is, it would be easy to focus on the non-banner nature of our year. There have certainly been lots of challenges for our family and we are still in the thick of it. But you know what, after being in a funk for a few days over things that are happening, I can only think today how honestly lucky we have been. My children are all healthy and at home. My husband has healed from his surgery--from a illness that fifty years ago probably would have simply killed him. We have clean running water, indoor plumbing, comfortable beds, good food, and all the support of so many. It's a wonderful life. No doubt about it. There are challenges, but I know that is normal. So today I am taking a vacation from my problems bob, because there is too much to be grateful for this time of year.

We love y'all. Here's to a better 2012.

2011-12-21T17:56:00.000-08:00

I came on to my blog to write up what is going on, and it seemed to blah for a post around Christmas time.

So....maybe I need to take a blogging break. Aren't you so proud of my self-editing?? This is seriously a miracle. My second name could probably be TMI Tilly.

So until I have something nice to say (and seriously, let's pray that days comes soon!) I don't think I can be trusted to say much at all.

I do truly and sincerely hope you all have the loveliest of Christmases.

random stuff plus a "had it lying around the house" project

2011-12-18T18:46:00.000-08:00

I apologize for the cell phone pictures, but that is what I've had on hand these past few days. Convenience beats out fancy photos 9 times out of 10.

Wave hello to my little lamb. She was the star of of her preschool Christmas program. Well....besides the Star star obviously. The great part of John losing his job? He actually got to come and see her program and she was SO excited. I was too. I handed over the baby to him and enjoyed myself immensely.

So before the great job debacle, I bought this amazing frame at Goodwill last week. It was empty, so I took my time trying to decide what I wanted to use it for--a fancy chalkboard? (you know I love those), just a plain old picture frame with an amazing family picture in it, or something else. In the end I had already planned on making a little corkboard inspiration wall for myself next to where I edit photos, and since I had the cork tiles on hand we turned it into a bulletin board. Easy and cheap project since my project days will be on hold for a bit.

Look Teagan, your postcard made the inspirational images/papers bulletin board. :) Also, don't you like that quote? I got it from pinterest. (are you on pinterest? If so, we should follow each other. I love that place. It's like I get an inside picture into my friends minds and they have the best taste!)

And this came from pinterest too. I like the idea of tying all of my worries to a balloon and letting it float away. Just let it go. You'll feel better. I know I do.

Next on the agenda is two in person interviews for John tomorrow, one phone interview tomorrow, and another phone interview on Wednesday. We hit the ground running folks. We don't mess around, no sir. :)

Hope

2011-12-15T19:06:00.000-08:00

This is just one of those posts that sometimes you have to write. Sometimes there are sunny days and sometimes there are some gray ones. Some days the blessings are easy to see, and sometimes they are a bit disguised and you have to look a bit harder. That's ok, because that is how life goes.

So, John lost his job yesterday. A week before Christmas. Right after he got back from a business trip that he has yet to be reimbursed for (okay, I am bitter about that part...I know they will reimburse it eventually, but could it have come at a worse time of year?) Were we shocked about it? Absolutely. Did we panic? Uh, yes. Did I do the ugly cry? I plead the fifth (no one should be outed on the ugly cry). Do I know what the future holds for us? Absolutely no idea.

But.

Do I feel peaceful today? Yes. Despite my usual propensity to freak out to the nth degree, somehow I am calm today. I feel like I have gotten the captain's portion of courage and peace and strength. I don't know where it is coming from, (okay, well of course there has to be some heavenly interference on my behalf on this) but somehow I know it will be okay. That doesn't mean that I don't have moments where the reality of our situation hits me and the bottom drops out of my stomach. That doesn't mean that I look at the presents under our tree and feel kind of sick. I have those twinges. But overall, I can't believe how calm I feel.

Our plan is to try and find John another job here in Charleston because we are fairly sure we would not be able to sell our house for the amount that we would need to sell it at this point. Does that mean we are 100% not going to move? I don't know. But for now, we are trying to exhaust our options here. I am optimistic that someone will want to scoop up a genius programmer like my husband.

The good news is that thanks to a friend in church we were able to have John's resume hand walked into a great company that emailed him the same day. He then set up a time and talked to them today as well. He finished the programming test they sent him and said that they will set up an interview with him next week. That interview was just the boost we needed to help us feel less frightened by the whole process. Someone likes his resume enough to call the same day. We can do this.

Hope is that thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops... at all. ~Emily Dickinson

bet you didn't know

2011-12-12T06:32:00.000-08:00

bet you didn't know that I skipped town this week. I decided that being a single mom was for the birds and went to go visit my aunt and uncle and cousins down in Florida. It was the best move I could have made, and I almost didn't go because the drive with two kids by myself freaked me out. But we survived it and had a really great time. If you know my Aunt Venita, you already know why I had a blast. She is one of the funniest and funnest people to be around. Thanks to my Orlando family!

We got home on Saturday and John finally came home on Sunday. I sincerely and truly salute all of the moms that have husbands in the military that leave for months at a time. I don't know how they do it. One week had me begging for mercy. Now you know how much a wimp I am.

And now....Christmas is almost upon us. I am feeling pretty happy about this, but also fairly broke thanks to my impromptu Florida getaway and John having to pay for his business trip and then be reimbursed (ugh, seriously amazon?? You can't afford to just straight out pay for your employee's business trips? Especially around Christmas?) But the Florida trip was worth it, so we'll just tighten the purse strings a bit. Being broke around Christmas seems fitting anyway, doesn't it?

Lastly, I made Maddy's gift for her preschool teacher. Did I show you the inspiration? I didn't take a photo of my finished product mostly because it looked just like the original. It looked cute and her teacher made the cookie dough there at the preschool during the time Maddy was there! I took that as a good sign. :)

I bought the containers and labels (and got the idea) from Garnish. Cheap, cute, easy. The trifecta of preschool teacher gift awesomeness.

So how are you feeling about Christmas being this close? What are you doing for your kids' teacher gifts?

the big switch (oh boy)

2011-12-06T19:04:00.000-08:00

So we switched the kids rooms because Grant's room shares a wall with the entryway and it was constantly waking him up (and shared another wall with the living room, where we hang out all of the time). I thought I was SO smart.

Fast forward two days when I realize that now I can no longer flush my toilet without waking him up at night. I can no longer open the "push only" doors into my bathroom without waking him up.

Moral of the story, your baby is going to wake up and make you want to tear your hair out no matter which room they are in. The only solution is the padded room for mom. The end. :)

a little christmas finery

2011-12-01T11:37:00.000-08:00

So just for a reminder, here's where we started. Not too bad, but I wanted something cozier for Christmas.

So after the pinspiration, we got busy:

I was quite proud of how I figured out how to make the top row of molding look chunkier. I'm easily proud of myself as you can tell.

We had some sad times along the way (uh, I thought we had a bucket of that brown from the previous owners, not so much...we had to try and color match and that was kind of tricky, but we figured it out in the end). Plus, cutting the holes for the power switches turned into a bigger project than we hoped too. Me + Math= Sad Times for everyone. But luckily caulk and paint cover a multitude of sins. (aka don't look too close). The most excellent news is this project was super cheap. We paid twenty dollars for one sheet of beadboard and had them cut it down to size at Home Depot. We had the top trim, and the boards and small trim were only a few dollars each. I already had the paint.

Voila!

So while I was making over the space, it kept bugging me how little light there was by the front door. Also, these standard light fixtures are pretty ugly. Since I now know that John can switch out light fixtures (ha I bet he wished he had kept that information to himself!) I was on the look-out.

I found this lovely for $15 at the Habitat for Humanity Restore. With a little paint I still had leftover from my headboard makeover, I had this lady looking better in no time.

I took out the glass because the beveled edges aged it, and I think it looks good without! Now it has four 60 watt bulbs and there is tons of light (and it looks about 7000 watts times better).

I know what you're thinking....how many pictures can she take of a light. SO MANY! hahaha

There are those three wreaths. They were only 2.48 at Wal-mart. I thought that was pretty amazing.

These little school chairs are still some of my favorite things in my house. Maddy uses them to put her shoes on.

this is where this project ended up, along with some college textbooks.

And after looking at the inspiration photo, I felt like I needed something above the beadboard. I decided to put Maddy's silhouette up and make Grant one as well. Have you ever tried to make a silhouette from a baby picture when they have little to no neck, and forty to seventy adorable baby chins??? Yeah, it's hard folks. But I still like how it turned out. :) (though I did have to order more black ink after all of the tries. The final product I ended up cutting out of construction paper!)

So now on to the rest of the Christmas decorating extravaganza!! We got that "canvas" looking picture from Wal-mart. They now do faux canvas art for a pretty good price. It definitely isn't as nice of quality as a real canvas, but I would say I like how it turned out overall. I mostly just love having a big picture of my family over the mantel.

I also love these little yo-yo things. I found the garland at k-mart of all places. I bet if you are a seamstress like my Mom you could make one of these in about five seconds. I, alas, have to pay for my cuteness.

I never forget to add copious amounts of berries to every surface. What Christmas is complete without flying berries I ask you??

Oh, another picture of the front area, well okay, if you insist.

We get a new disney ornament for special occasions in our family. We have one for the year we were married (we went to Disney World on our honeymoon), one commemorating our first date that John bought me, one for Maddy's first Christmas, one for last year when I was pregnant with Grant, and now this is Grant's first Christmas. I usually like to get one that says "baby's first Christmas" but couldn't find one, and this ornament is SO much cooler. It does all sorts of fancy tricks. Even our dog can't do that many tricks. (though that is a weak standard to be honest).

You know I'm all about the free art. I found these from an old Etsy item that was sold of vintage Christmas cards. There were probably five that sort of matched and looked like cut outs. I loved them and just printed them from the computer. Here's the link.

and lastly, what Christmas post would be complete without a look at Maddy's rendition of that beautiful night. The nativity definitely needs a mythical creature or two, and a goat on a palm tree, don't you think??

some mickeys were harmed during the making of this blog post

2011-11-30T10:40:00.000-08:00

Yes, I'm sorry to tell you we have had a casualty over at our house. Let's have a moment of silence.

This is Maddy's toothbrush holder. I won't name names, but somebody of the tiny variety broke it while I was trying to wash their filthy baby hands. I knew we were in big trouble because this toothbrush holder is much beloved. So I did what any mature parent would do....I left it and pretended like I didn't know anything about it when Maddy came asking what happened. Daddy promised to fix him (probably because he secretly loves that thing more than she does), and all is right with the world again. Well, except for Mickey. He looks like he got taken down by some sort of cartoon mafia.

Anywho, I have been m.i.a. lately, but not for lack of awesome projects (like gluing mickeys back together). I've been busy working away and thought it was time to give a sneak peek. I'm done with most of the projects I've been doing, but still have to hang one final thing. So sneak peek it is.

You know what this means right?? Oh yeah, we added some more moulding to the house. I may never be finished adding stuff like this until my entire house is covered.

So this is our entryway. I fell in love with this picture on pinterest:

And since we have such a small entryway, I thought this would be a perfect way to make it stand out. I knew the key to awesomeness would be 1. the chunky top molding, and 2. the three awesome wreaths. We accomplished both, although my top molding is not quite that thick (as you can see by the photos above--it's the piece of unpainted wood), but I'm at peace about that (mostly).

Another pinterest victory? Here's the inspiration photo:

So pretty. I didn't have a vintage looking carrier like that one, but I did find a jam jar holder for a few bucks at Walmart and my little wheels started turning. This is how my version turned out.

This is a bad cell phone picture of it, but I was fairly impressed with myself. I bought fake moss for goodness sakes...if that doesn't make me crafty, then I just don't know what will.

In other pinterest obsession news, I found these free printable labels and they are awesome. I bought a little do-da from ebay that turns normal paper into stickers and made them into holiday tags. It was pretty much the coolest thing I've ever done, just ask Maddy. Anyone who can make stickers out of thin air is pretty much awesome in her book.

Lastly, here is the sneakiest peek of all:

I bet you can guess what I've been up to. Hopefully this Habitat for Humanity beauty will be hung tonight (transformed of course). Free paint, super cheap fixture? Sounds like another match made in heaven around here.

So now you're just about caught up. What do you think, are sneak peeks more fun than waiting forever for the final reveal, or do you just like the final outcome?

crazy I tell ya

2011-11-27T19:12:00.000-08:00

I was back reading my old blog and this post made me SUPER homesick for my Utah friends. I miss the old book club, and the reason I had for having pretend fancy parties. I think it's time to start another book club, perhaps titled The Finer Things Numero Dos. Have you read any amazing books lately? I am in the market for some amazing reads.

I miss these fun and funny women

Also, I finished my little project and forgot to take pictures while there was light outside. Darn it all. On the plus side, what an awesome weekend we had. I got to have a Mommy-Daughter date and we went to see a movie. We've begun the parent-daughter date thing just recently and it has been great. Hopefully we will keep it up every now and again, because Maddy loves it and I know Grant will too. So far he gets quality one-on-one time at home with the parent that is not on the date, so it works out great for everyone.

Oh and guess what? I didn't take a single picture of our thanksgiving feast. Can you believe it? And I did that on purpose. Who would have thought that I would do something just for the sheer joy of living it and not just for the love of blogging. Crazy, just plain crazy I tell ya. :)

Duped No More

2011-11-24T20:14:00.000-08:00

They say you can't buy happiness...

but then I saw these light-up Rudolph slippers and I knew they lied. Just had to share, in case you had been duped too.

Happy Thanksgiving. We had a really awesome day. Hope you did too. (which, if you have these slippers, it goes without saying that you did).

I interrupt this blog

2011-11-21T20:21:00.000-08:00

to announce that someday I want--nay, NEED--to own one of each of the following:

A vintage card catalog. I was proposed to in a library after all.


The RED mailbox.


A well-loved berry picking bucket.

a big old galvanized bucket.


A hand-twist doorbell.

A bed like this for Granty one day.


And lastly, but most belovedly, a mirror shaped just like this one. If I ever come across one, I think that music will play...you know the romantic kind when the two long lost lovers run across a field of flowers into each others arms? Reminds me of this clip. I would be Miss Piggy and the mirror would be Kermit. True love.

So yeah, this post basically means that I'm not ready to show you my project. The number one inhibitor of progress these days is sleeping babies. That also happens to usually be the number one proponent of progress around here too, so we are at a bit of a standstill (we have to nail stuff to the wall right outside sleeping baby's room). Hopefully we'll get a chance tomorrow.

What are some of your crazy and random wants?

Ah Snap

2011-11-20T19:53:00.000-08:00

On Friday my sister called and we had the following conversation:

Me: "Hey, how are you?"

Sister: "Good. How about you? What projects are you going to do this weekend?"

Me: "Nothing, I don't always have to be doing a project you know."

Sister laughs. I take umbrage.

Then I think....hey wait a cotton-picking minute, why don't I have a project this weekend?? I need a project STAT!

I am so predictable.

I would show you pictures, but our project ran into some snafus. But we never give up. It's gonna look awesome. Also, I bought a piece of furniture at a garage sale. I told John about it and how cheap it was and I measured and hummed and hawed and finally decided to pull the trigger after talking the lady's price down more. I got it all the way home and then it was just a smidge too big for the spot I wanted it for.

Ah Snap.

So then I moved it to our bedroom. I did all of this while John was gone on a Daddy-Daughter date with Maddy (they picked Chuck E. Cheese as their "place of bonding." That is my idea of a "place of wanting to give up the will to live." One man's treasure....) Anyway, John came home and I was slightly nervous to see how he would react to the new arrangement (that man is kind of averse to change, and you would think he was used to it being married to me!) but he really loved the furniture. It's a real bona fide antique--real wood--I think mahogany. I fell in love with the hardware and fancy legs. I'll take pictures next time, I promise. I'm feeling lazy and it's dark outside. But maybe you get bored of all of these house change posts? That's kind of my sort of boring.

Tips for feeling content this Christmas

2011-11-18T10:13:00.000-08:00

1. Do not look at Black Friday ads

2. Do not look at Black Friday ads

3. Make yourself a cup of hot cocoa

if possible, make it from Ghiradelli 73% cacao chocolate bars and cream.

4. But don't read the Black Friday ads while you drink your cocoa.

and there you have the recipe for contentment this Christmas. I'm feeling really good not knowing what I'm "missing" and don't really need. What's your recipe for contentment this year?

p.s. I know a lot of people just go out for fun and a few deals on black friday, and I think that's awesome (really!). This is just a personal recipe for me....that includes chocolate. and in all likelihood I'll probably go to Target later in the day on black friday just for fun. But the stressful feeling that I'm missing out on some great deal that I would have to push past fifty rabid other shoppers just to realize they only had two in the store to begin with...well I've decided to skip that. Ahhh, it feels good. :)

How to get your christmas jiggy on

2011-11-16T07:00:00.000-08:00

First, get some letters and some glitter and some glue and make some really sparkly letters that spell out a Christmasy word. The redder the glitter=the more Christmas spirit you feel. Then, put it on a goodwill shelf that you found for 3 dollars. Ignore the 1985 heart cutout because it's for Christmas, so you're allowed to have cheesy things like around. Plus...uh, it was three dollars.

Sew more Christmas pillows out of napkins. Find some candy cane stripe/ticking stripe bedding (and if you're super cheap like me, sell something around your house to bankroll that purchase).

napkins with ribbons, check

napkins without ribbons, check.

Study pictures of Pottery Barn's website and decide that 1. you need a headboard, and 2. you are not paying $900 for one, and 3. study how they make their beds look so very cozy and try to recreate said coziness (and fail, but still, it was fun). Have you ever noticed that PB takes their bedding pictures from a bit below the bed level? Weird, but it works....

Here's the pottery barn inspiration. Bytheway, I did not get my bedding from them. It's just a look alike. :) I mostly loved their headboard in this.

I blatantly copied the shelf, sparkly letters, dog picture idea from this better homes and gardens picture. John made fun of me and asked if I was going to get some puppies to put on the bed too. Maybe I will mister...don't put ideas into my head....

Buy your headboard from craigslist for twenty bucks and spray paint it oil rubbed bronze. But here's where you should differ from me--try not to throw up because you accidentally breathed in a puff of spray paint like a rookie. Also, don't have your four year old watching the whole process so she can run behind you (as you run for the water closet) yelling," Mommy!!! ARE YOU THROWING UP MOMMY???"

Surprisingly, throwing up is something I prefer to do without commentary.

Here's what the headboard looked like before. Pretty standard. Or substandard if we're being really honest. Pretend like you don't notice the fact that my garage floor is bright red....

You are wondering what this is? This is evidence of my genius. So I had to show you. The headboard sat too low for my taste, so I cut some MDF all by my little self and drilled some holes and attached it. Instant elevator shoes for a bed.

Let's get back to the pretty pictures. I also added some artwork above the nightstands. That was free. No really. I had the frames in the garage. They were holding some artwork I didn't like anymore (they were originally thrift store frames I painted). I took out the artwork, and then I covered the backing with a sheet of coloring paper that I stole from Maddy. It's the paper from Ikea that they use for their easels. It is a nice cream color and quite thick. I just used double sided tape and wrapped the back board from the frame like a present and taped the image on top. Easy and free!

Free also because I googled "antique sketches" and remembered how awesome this Da Vinci horse sketch was--so I printed it on my normal printer and put it on my husband's side.

For my own side, I picked this pretty lady. Again, just googled antique sketches. If you want a link, let me know.

Here it all is again.

And now that you're suitably impressed, I take this opportunity to show you what the other side of the room looked like. I take this chance to remind you that every single blog is pretend fancy if you have kids. Because kids don't like pottery barn houses. They like inflated duck bath houses. And I like kid houses, so I guess by the transitive property I like duck bath houses.

And now you see why I did not study math in college. (hey, I'm proud I remembered the term "transitive property")

And well...I'm sorry to embarrass barbie like this, but this was found on my floor as well.

He was hanging out, checking out my makeover too. Since he promptly threw off the cute frame I had put on the sidetable, I took that as baby speak for him approving. I then moved the cute frame back to the garage. My style can only take so much baby approval.

a few things

2011-11-13T17:57:00.000-08:00

1. i made some pillow cases out of napkins. they look suitably cozy. I'll get on taking their pictures stat.

2. I read this book and love it. LOVE it. I usually find books like this cheesy, but not this one.

A friend from church wants me to take some photos of a family at church to sort of recreate the book, and so I had to read it. I was dubious, and now I'm a fan. Now I need a copy.

3. I did a big grocery shop on Saturday and several people said comments like, "whoa, are you feeding a whole village at home" or other things like that. To me, this is akin to asking a pregnant woman if she is having twins. Keep your eyes outta my cart people! (or at least don't tell me that it looks like I am a food hoarder, sheesh).

4. I was teaching a lesson in church today and meant to read, "adam and eve's eyes were opened." instead I read it, "adam and eve's flies were opened." oh mylanta. It took a while for the class to recover after that one.

5. Remember that painted bucket with the dots I saw on pinterest and wanted to recreate? I hate to tell you this, but if you ever title one of your pins on pinterest as "super easy to DIY" it will come back to haunt you in your over-confident face. My bucket looked like it caught the measles. I may or may be trying again. Me and the bucket are still in a fight.

6.My baby has double ear infections and doesn't like to be left to his own devices for long. It was slowly driving me weepy and exhausted this week, but the miracle of medicine is working it's magic and he is slowly getting better.

7. Why are men SO DANG HARD to shop for for Christmas? I mean, it's easy to buy socks and Itunes gift cards, but those are so boring. And I don't have five million dollars for some cool gadget. What are you getting your husband/father/brother/significant male in your life? I won't tell....

8.I have been trying to wear contacts more often because I saw a picture of myself from a few years ago and I convinced myself that I looked so good because I wasn't wearing glasses. The most interesting part of this experience (besides realizing that it was also the fact that I was ten years younger in that photo) is that I keep trying to push my glasses back up my nose so I can see better. And then there is nothing there. And then I feel dumb and laugh at myself. and look around to make sure no one saw.

9. Little known fact (or easily forgotten fact) buying wrapping paper and stocking stuffers costs quite a bit of money too, and yet I don't ever really consider it a major expense every year. That's how they get you. Darn them and their cute reindeer wrapping paper.

10. John's Mom sent Maddy some "Speed Stacks Cups." When I opened the box, I was like, Uh, what in the world, she sent us a bunch of plastic cups to play with?? And then Maddy got a hold of them and they are about the funnest toy she has played with in years. So, I highly recommend getting your kids some plastic cups and saving yourself $500 in other toys for Christmas. plus, babies like to knock them down too.

another scattered list from my scattered brain. isn't it scary to get a peek inside?? :)

Don't roll your eyes at my socks!

2011-11-09T19:21:00.000-08:00

I don't know what was up with me, but all of the sudden I got major bloggers block. Well...honestly I think it might have had something to do with having a sick baby. Something about wiping a screaming baby's nose five thousand times a day will suck the inspiration right out of you I'd say. But luckily I did these projects before Granters got sick.

I present, the christmas bedding. If anyone makes a comment about how it hasn't even been thanksgiving yet, well....I have nothing to say about that. :)

So, once upon a time it all began with me wanting to buy Madster some flannel sheets for the cooler weather. And also, I may or may not have seen this pin on pinterest:

This lady also put flannel sheets on her girls beds, and I fell in love with the buffalo check duvet covers at the same time as admiring their sheets. Upon using my crack research team "the Google" I realized the duvets were sold once upon a time by Pottery Barn and are no longer for sale. Besides, we all know what Pottery Barn is a synonym for: sell your children to Rumpelstiltskin for enough gold to buy something.

So, using a gift card to Joanns that I got for my birthday, I bought some fabric during their columbus day sale (or some other random holiday that they just use as an excuse to put mattresses, t.v.'s and fabric on sale).

I bought the flannel sheet set on ebay for super cheap. It has cute little stockings. All the other pillows I had laying around.

So I bought a full-size sheet from wal-mart to use at the backing and then made a duvet cover. I was and am extremely impressed with myself. I am not a sewer or sewist or seamstress. Don't look too close.

To close up the top, I used some extra binding that I had from the other project I'm going to show you in a second. I like the rustic/crazy lady feel they give to the overall project.

Crazy lady, because it looks like some sort of weird person forgot how to sew buttons and just tied stuff together. I am very sorry to say that is the exact truth. But I still like how it looks. Take that, buttons.

And, just like my usual give a mouse a cookie ways, if I changed the bedding, the curtains would look really weird (they were flowers), so I used some fabric I got a long time ago and sewed it to an old shower curtain I had lying around. I have a lot of stuff laying (lying? please, grammar police, don't tell me. I got away with an english degree without knowing, and I don't intend on changing that for anyone!) around the house.

So anyway, on to the next project, which was inspired by this Pinterest. I take that pinterest seriously folks. Be careful with what you pin on your boards. Cause I will do it. I will jump off a cliff if your pinterest board makes it look pretty enough.

Well first of all, I saw this picture second, because obviously buying baby socks would have been approximately five million point two percent easier than the project I did. But I did get the idea for the tiny clothespins from this one, so it was not all in vain.

This was the original pin. This is actually an advent calendar. I think I originally went into the project thinking that making 25 tiny socks was a great idea. And then I remembered that I'm not a sewist and that sewing is not fun but necessary to achieve cute stuff.

So here's my version. It's funny, it didn't look sad to me until I looked at it right after the professional socks....

Now it's as if these tiny baby stockings are crying out, "please, put us out of our misery and sell a child to Rumpelstiltskin so you can buy a real stocking chain." Hush socks, it will be okay.

See, you look pretty cute form this angle! So, yeah, I bought a bunch of sweaters from goodwill and traced around a tiny stocking pattern and then sewed around the edges. Voila! Instant baby sock sized stockings!

I hung them up in Maddy's room while she was gone at preschool, relishing the thought of how pleased she would be when she got home. I told her to go into her room and see what was different. She came back and said, "Get those socks out of there NOW!" Um, she didn't like them. Whaaa? I think she must have seen the pinterest photos too....too bad, they are staying! And you will like them young lady! (and I might have bribed her with a lollipop....I can't remember, but with the picture above, I'm thinking I probably did).

So there she is, her beautiful Christmas bed. It is snuggly and cute. The girl is too.

The stockings and bedspread make me happy.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot that I made a pillow out of the rest of one of the sweaters and I kind of hate it. But I sewed it by golly, and it's going on the blog.

So. Now that you've read this bunch of crazy, how are you Christmas decoratings going? Or Christmas shoppings? Or....I know you're rolling your eyes. That's ok...we'll see who has the last ho ho ho....

(this blog post was written under the influence of sweet barbecue flavor potato straws. I take no responsibility for the content).

bytheway, next up on my pinterest remake list:

something from here

and making over a goodwill bucket.

My Exciting News!!

2011-11-07T15:53:00.000-08:00

I was featured today on one of my favorite blogs, Remodelaholic!

This is beyond exciting! I got the email this morning that they were going to feature my kitchen later today (it's already up!) and they're also going to feature my playroom later in the month! Holy Cannoli folks, this is just about the most exciting thing to happen around here ever. Hop over and pretend like you don't know me and leave lots of comments expressing your amazement and admiration will ya? Heaven knows I don't want to be the one post that crickets chirp over in the comments section. Hey... it could happen.

But let's focus, I got featured!! I'm such a nerd.

I'll be on later tonight to upload my latest project, which was (don't make fun of me) making my Maddy's room all Christmasy. Okay. You can make fun of me. It's ok. Because you know why? Because I don't even mind today because I'M BEING FEATURED on REMODELAHOLIC.

Woohoo!

This is cracking me up

2011-11-06T19:38:00.000-08:00

Okay, this is killing me. I am editing pictures for a family photoshoot I did recently. Who does this guy look like to you? To me he is a dead ringer for a famous actor. When I first realized it, I was amazed how much he looked like him. I wanted to make sure it wasn't in my head and had John come over and he didn't even hesitate and named the same person. Do you see it? Make your guesses below.... :)

Aren't they cute? Married forty years.

Seen at Wal-Mart

2011-11-03T19:01:00.000-07:00

I was at Wal-Mart late the other night, and as everyone knows, this is when the really interesting folks come out (ha, I hope I wasn't one of them!). I saw:

1. a guy wearing budweiser pajama pants. (let's take a moment to let that fashion statement sink in fully)...... He was driving one of those motorized shopping carts. I kinda wondered if he was drinking and driving if he had the bravery to wear those pants out in public.

2. Two ladies with huge coupon pouches and filled to the top carts who paid only $1.16 out of pocket (and that's only after one of them went and got two more bottles of shampoo so that Walmart wouldn't owe them seven dollars). Um, I was both amazed and felt a little sick to my stomach that I was buying my cart full of groceries without any coupons. Ex-couponer guilt....it hurts.

3. I kept seeing the same guy over and over in different parts of the store. It got to the point where I was kinda wondering if he was following me, so I did some serpentine moves and lost him. Or the serpentine moves scared him and he thought I was following him and he left. I like my version better.

4. A little girl that was probably 3 years old beating on a vending machine. Um...it was like 10 at night--Why was there a three year old at walmart at that time of night? And...where were her parents? And more importantly, what did that vending machine do to tick off a 3 year old? ha

I guess it could have been worse, she could have been stuck inside like this kid

Wal-mart watching. it should be a national past-time.

My Sista

2011-11-03T18:37:00.000-07:00

is going to be disgruntled because I told her that I was working on a project today and she told me to post some pictures, but I didn't take any and so, I am sorry to tell you dear sister, in this super long run on sentence, that you will have to wait a day. But, in good news, I have some other stellar photos.

She is oh so sad because she cannot find any "friends"

but then, she realizes a few are trapped in our thing that is supposed to kill yellow jackets (and has yet to catch any yellow jackets)

She caught two of them. Her expression speaks for itself.

For the record, those things give me the willies. She is not scared. Shortly after this, she somehow also caught a frog. She caught a different frog the day before. She's getting pretty good! (she also informed me that they have "tape on their feet" because they are sticky. cute.)

I also get some beautiful bouquets out of her outdoor exploits as well. She never ceases to make me smile.

Stand Back, I'm Going to Try Science!

2011-11-03T18:26:00.000-07:00

So I was being awesome one day and used a birthday gift card that I got a while ago and bought a science kit for John and Maddy to play together. I sit and watch them do it, but I specifically wanted something that the two of them could bond over and do. When the package came in the mail, Maddy could not have been more excited. Some of her statements over the kit:

"Mom, I need to tell the missionaries that I got some science." (we had the missionaries over for dinner a few weeks ago...that is all I can come up with as to why they came up lol).

"The dog is in the house. That is it! (said like she's had it up to here)....I need to use science!"

"Daddy, I need a bath tonight." "Why?" "because we can do science in the tub!"

So, as you can see, she was thrilled, and also, she has no idea what science really means. :)

Here are a few photos of our future nobel prize winning chemist.

I see you!

Checking out the specimens

better take a closer look

the "making snow" experiment

just add water

and it becomes super awesome stuff

i'm sure most of you know this is the same stuff you find inside diapers. but cool nonetheless

she was a little attached to that thing

using her first pipette. Daddy was so proud. No seriously, he was.

she LOVES it. daddy LOVES it. Mommy loves them loving it.

I also love this.

This little fellow

2011-11-01T11:41:00.000-07:00

He deserves a post all of his own. It's been a while.

Mr. G is getting so big. He is pulling himself up and acting like some sort of walking man. But really, he's still a crawling baby. And if he knows what's good for him, he'll stay that way. I need him to stay tiny for a long time.

One sock on, the other off, watching Maddy play outside.

"But of course you may take my photograph young lady" Give this fella a top hot and he may just start tap dancing with a pose like that.

Even with the requisite drool, he makes an adorable sight.

hahahahaha (and it's all fun and games until he gets those eight teefers on your fingers, and then you know that scowl means business)

sigh :)

He is a big time eater. He eats three tubs of baby food at every meal, and then eats off of our plates. It's kind of unrreal how much he can pack away. He literally eats more than Maddy. Recent favorites are bites of pizza and noodles and sips of whatever Mom and Dad are drinking.

He has a few obsessive loves at this stage of his life (besides eating): crawling after Mom and whining until she picks him up, being carried around with a self-satisfied smile that earns him about five thousand kisses from said Mom, being swaddled when he sleeps (yes, still!), bathtime with his sister where he splashes them both and then freaks out because he just splashed himself, biting fingers and then crying when you yelp in pain, never holding still when you try to change his diaper, adoring Maddy with all of his little baby heart, and smiling at you whenever you look at him. He is SUCH a smiley baby.

He also likes to charm the socks off of the local senior citizen population. Everyone loves his eyes, just like they loved Maddy's eyes when she was tiny.

Mom's favorite game (that Grant doesn't like) is to move when he is crawling towards her with his head down. By the time he lifts his head his target has moved and he gets really mad. Mom has a really terrible sense of humor.

But he can't stay mad at his Mommy, who he loves to refer to as Na-Na. She is wrapped around his little baby finger. Of course, Daddy and Maddy love him too. :)

Funnies

2011-10-30T18:53:00.000-07:00

Please enjoy some recent and random conversations with our four year old.

Mom: Maddy, what did you learn at church today?

Maddy: I learned about guitars. And I really really want a guitar, because guitars make you wild. And Mommy and Daddy, I am wild. I will learn to play guitar and then I will leave the house and never come back.

Dad: Uh, I think that was probably the part of the story she wasn't supposed to empathize with.

**************

Maddy: Dad, could you please show me some of your moves?

Mom: What do you mean moves Maddy, you mean like dance moves or what?

Maddy: Oh you know, like your cool moves.

Dad: (cracking up) Maddy, why don't you show us your cool moves first.

Maddy: (looking sheepish) Sorry Daddy, I don't have any cool moves yet.

***********

Mom: Maddy, could you hurry and say the prayer so our cereal won't get soggy?

Maddy: Dear Heavenly Father, please bless that our cereal won't get soggy. Amen.

Oh man, I wish I would write these down as soon as she says them, because she has me laughing several times a day. These are the few I could remember. I love that girl.

With a wave of my makeover wand....

2011-10-27T19:01:00.000-07:00

we switched our formal dining room out for an office/craft space! (no but seriously, how do I get one of those magic wands?)

First of all, let's get this out of the way--I am annoyed with my pictures. I want to blame my camera, but it's probably me. I feel like my photos lately have been coming in not quite as clearly as before. I think I might need to get my camera cleaned and re-calibrated. Or I need lasik. I feel like I can't take pictures of my house if my life depended on it. Oh well. :) So anyway, this used to be our formal living room. Once we redid our other eat-in area, we found we were eating in there a lot more than ever. I hate having wasted space in a house, and started rethinking the formal dining room. Of course I have zero money, but that never stops me. I just used what I had. The dresser was in our closet and now houses my craft supplies.

We brought both of our desks in here and I really love it. I get lots of sunlight and I can have Maddy working on coloring or other stuff in the same room.

This bookcase just got shifted to another wall.

I did get a new urn from Goodwill a while ago. I thought it looked kinda pumpkiny.

Switched out this area (where my desk used to be) and put our shoes in those baskets underneath.

Another goodwill two dollar find. Maddy loves to play with it. We practice dialing 9-1-1 on it, since that's the new big thing at preschool.

and funnily enough with the title of this post, Maddy is wearing an "I'm Grumpy" t-shirt. It runs in the family. (as does using the measuring tape).

I snuck this chair back into the room. I love these old ratty school chairs. They will never leave me.

Hope you liked my mini makeover.

Gratuitous Commentary is my Speciality

2011-10-27T18:46:00.000-07:00

I don't know if I have anything particularly witty to say about this latest installment, except that we carved some pumpkins and by golly, you're gonna read about it (or skip it). I also feel that I need to use the term by golly a few more times. By golly.

I love how they ended up carving like this, Maddy in the middle of Daddy's arms.

Concentration, Concetration, pumpkins are dying, babies are crying...what? you don't know that song?

oh my sweetheart. Can you see the glitter on her cheek? We were practicing for her costume.

Getting non-flash pictures at night is not easy. I just wanted you to know. Maddy kept sticking her tongue out while carving and it made me laugh. She is the micheal jordan of pumpkin carving.

Yes, we let her wield the sharp stuff. She did a great job, and Dad was watching very closely.

And apparently threatening her with further bodily harm if she harmed herself.

A different angle

I kinda love it. I held it up over our heads and didn't even look through the viewfinder. Lucky pic

I stuck that bow in her hair just for the pictures. You caught me.

Oh and Mr. G was there too, and he WAS NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT thankyouverymuch. :)

This picture cracks me up. Can you tell we're kinda used to his fussing lol. Dad and Maddy just keep working.

But why won't you looooove meeeee? Poor wittle baby

And then Mama gave him some baby snacks and he was happy again (and soon thereafter was packed off to slumberville.

The finished spooky product. By golly

She looks so dang old in this picture. Excuse me while I go and wake her up and demand she stop growing right this second. Holy cow.

don't give the mouse the cookie

2011-10-25T08:38:00.000-07:00

Have you ever read the perennial classic, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie? If not, you are not only missing out on one of the best kids stories ever, but also an allegory of truth and woe.

Yesterday I decided I wanted to move our old timey radio (that's what we call it) and had the brilliant idea that it might fit into the built in next to the fireplace. This is what that ended up looking like:

in case you were wondering, yes I did measure. There is a lip on the front of the shelf though and it just barely couldn't squeeze past. And also, yes I did try to do this myself. I sent John this picture in a text and said, "Um, not one of my better ideas..." He's used to me by now.

So anyway, just as in the story of that tiny rodent that began by only wanting something as innocent as a cookie, pretty soon I had to start moving all sorts of things around and by the end of it I somehow decided to change my formal living room into an office/craft room/photography area. I'll post some pictures soon.

this is what the kitchen started looking like during the process. See? Just like the book!

Luckily for the mouse and for me, their partners in crime don't wring their necks by the end of the book/moving stuff around. Although I think he was tempted.

By Special Request

2011-10-22T19:31:00.000-07:00

Presenting, in dolby surround sound and dark and grainy documentary style footage, the bubs learning to crawl. (this was about a week ago, he has mastered the art of crawling now and is pretty fast. This one you can still see him learning. For the love of all cuteness).

Y'all know you can ask for baby videos at any time and I would give them to you right? I just never thought anyone would want to be tortured by them except for us!

True Life Confessions

2011-10-22T15:28:00.000-07:00

1. I let Maddy listen to this Beyonce song. We sing it at the top of our lungs in the car. I always feel slightly ashamed, but when she sings, "WHO RUNS THE WORLD? GIRLS!" I just love it a little too much.

2. I am surprised every single time that someone tells me that I am good at something. I got to "overhear" a facebook conversation about how creative and cool I was, and I was in complete shock. Creative, who, me? Um, I don't feel creative, I don't feel interesting. I am constantly amazed that anyone reads this blog. But it warmed my heart so much.

3. Lately I have made quite a few dinners from things I saw people pin on pinterest. So far, not a single one has failed me. YUM. (the sauce below is the most recent one I tried and it is to die for).

Source: creationsbykara.com via Hanh on Pinterest

4. I still really love to dance, and I do it all the time. But every time I dance, I think of this commercial. It makes me laugh...and cringe.

5. Every woman should own a pair of stretchy, cottony, black yoga pants. Not only are they comfortable, but you can wear them out in public and pretend like you didn't also wear them to bed.

6. I miss having a book club and a reason to have fancy parties.

7. The floors in my bathroom need a good scrub, but I hate cleaning bathroom floors. I really really really want one of these. It can both vacuum and then mop. Anyone have one and can tell me how they like it (or another brand)?

8. I hate to be one of those people, but I am already so excited for Christmas. This has never happened in the history of my life since I was 8 years old, but I just can't wait. I don't know why.

9. For those of you that asked (cough, Kendra) our local airport is the Charleston Airport. :)

10. Did I mention on here yet that Grant is crawling and has been doing so for over a week?? He is so so so cute. Also, that may be why I feel that I need a Shark Vacuum and Mop. All of the sudden the floors seem filthy and covered in danger. Oh man.

I was armed, I was armed (and other tales)

2011-10-20T21:02:00.000-07:00

I just kinda felt like posting some random pictures. Do you like my jumbo basket? I do, I got it a few weeks ago (you guessed it) from craigslist. It was 3 whole dollars. I wanted something big enough for blankets. I love it.

Then I fall-ified my mantel. It felt good.

My favorite thing to do during Fall is get out these milk glass teacups I found at a thrift store five million years ago and put little LED tea lights in them. They give off kind of a warm yet spooky glow. Perfect.

The Jane Austen picture just seemed kinda fallish and romantic (and with her dour expression, also kinda haunted housey), so I kept her up.

And the hand-me-down pumpkin sign my sister gave me once upon a time.

Speaking of sisters, I want to embarrass mine and tell a funny story. One time she left me a comment, and let me tell you what she meant to type. She meant to type something about always getting the hand-me-downs because she was the youngest. What she actually typed was she always got the "hammy downs." I never laughed so hard in my life. The mental image of a hammy down is just too awesome. Plus, it reminds me of all the times I get the lyrics to songs wrong and belt them out while driving. Remember the song, How Bizarre? I thought the guy was saying, I was armed, I was armed! ha, so there you go, Kelly, you know I love you. :)

At long last, the Kitchen Makeover Extravaganza!

2011-10-16T19:50:00.000-07:00

If you want to see the entire series on my kitchen makeover, you might want to check out here and here!

Let's remind ourselves of where we came from to get this post started off right.

Hey, I've learned a thing or two about a thing or two from watching HGTV. You always make your befores look as horrible as possible. That means a sink full of dirty dishes folks. These are the lengths I'm willing to go to just for you. Heaven knows my sink never looks like that in real life....


To see the chairs makeover and the dumpster dive armoire makeover, you can go here.

ahhh, breath of fresh air. This picture was taken on another day and the lighting was better than most of the others, but oh well.

I used the same paint from the cabinets on the table. It is holding up great.

The rest were taken today. I am still loving my red chairs that I made over. You can read about that here.

Are you in love with my light fixture? Because I am. Big time. That was my twenty dollar score at Habitat for Humanity.

I was super impressed that John figured out to hang it. That is one area that I refuse to DIM (Do It Myself). Electricity is scary. My hair is big enough without any accidental help.

Ah, my dumpster dive dresser that I turned into an armoire. More about that transformation here.

I had curtains here at first, but they were just not sitting right with me. So I took the roman shade from Maddy's room and decided to jimmy rig a cover and use it in the kitchen. You'll laugh, but that fabric is from the back of an Ikea duvet cover that I had sitting in my closet. ha! You might ask how I put it on the shade?

If you look really closely you'll see the answer to that question...safety pins! No I am not joking. Not only am I the cheapest person alive, but I am also possibly the most likely to short cut something.

But I really love how it turned out.

Then I bought a crab on etsy and that kinda made me happy. I dry-brushed a gold frame with the same paint I used on the bottom cabinets.

Woo hoo, I picture of the done cabinets!

I added beadboard to the back of the cabinets to add some interest, and to make my life more difficult. You know how much I love to complicate my life. (Color used on the upper cabinets is Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations Pure White, the bottom cabinets are Seaside. We didn't use any glaze on either.)

It took me a long time to get everything to my liking on those shelves. I texted pictures to my Mom and sister several times. This is what we ended up with. I love it. And maybe you don't believe me, but we use everything that you see (although granted the yellow teacups are used less frequently than other things.) :)

Oh, and there's my homemade horse weathervane on top. It is made of foam core board and a dowel. I got the inspiration from this blog, which copied the idea from Ballard designs (although I made mine with a different type of base than she did). I wanted a statement piece over the cabinets that could stand alone, since I'm not a fan of tchotkes on top of cabinets. (no offense to any of you that might have stuff up there, I just can never get it to look right).

Another view of the kitchen. Don't you love how my floors look next to the blue of the cabinets?? I also added corbels underneath. They are smallish, but I wanted them that way so that they wouldn't eat into the useable counter space underneath.

I also took out the old hardware and added these pulls from Home Depot's Martha Stewart line. They were actually quite cheap for bin pulls and I LOVE how they look.

And there she is, the love of my life (well after family, cough cough). My new faucet. Doesn't she really make the kitchen look like it's not just trying too hard. Instead, she makes everything look on purpose.

I had the most amazing luck with finding this fixture on craigslist for a fantastic deal, plus the guy installed it for us, which really ended up being worth the money, as our sink gave him a hard time (and he's a contractor!). We ended up having to add that little soap dispenser because the faucet handle was hitting the sprayer when it was off. We were both super frustrated and unsure what to do, and then I thought of a soap dispenser and he put the sprayer in the other spot. It worked out great!

I added a walmart basket on top of the fridge for some extra hidden storage and for looks.

Blue patterned plates are plastic from Target, red stripe bowl from T.J. Max, cups from Ikea, small plates from thrift stores, teacups from a garage sale. I don't think people believe me when I tell them that I get my things for really cheap. It just takes time to collect. :)

Oh lovely lovely floor. I stole the rug from our laundry room.

This is for those that wonder about wood grain. You can barely barely see it in this photo.

I tried really hard to capture it here. Like I said, it really isn't that noticeable.

Where I keep the inevitable plastic stuff that you need with kids. Genius right? Basket found at Target.

Fake topiary also a must

The teacups were an Etsy find that my Mom bought for me a while back. I love them and will take them to my grave with me. They will have to pry them from my cold dead hands. There's a mental picture for ya. lol!

So there you have it at last. I hope it was worth the wait and the five million photos. If you are curious about anything feel free to comment or email me. Otherwise, you just plain better comment to tell me how much you loved it because these posts were brought to you by some serious blood, sweat, and tears. (and not just mine). ha!

Linking up to www.jenniferrizzo.com

The Kitchen Gets Worse Before it Gets Better

2011-10-16T18:37:00.000-07:00

So let me tell you something about painting your own kitchen cabinets....it takes a LONG freaking time. Especially if you can't take a small sample of the paint color home and so you end up picking a white that ends up exactly matching your cream walls and you lament and wail about it before finally taking it back and getting a new white and redoing the entire upper portion. Wish I was kidding about that. UGH. But I knew it would drive me crazy and if I was going to do it, I was going to do it right. I hated my own guts for about two weeks over that one.

So I don't know if I told you all, but I decided to use the Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations kit. They sell them at Home Depot and lots of other places, and I thought for a LONG time before deciding to go that way. I read quite a few reviews and looked at lots of pictures and finally decided that if I ruined my cabinets that I would figure out a way to fix them. I'm not a giver upper. I also figured that they really couldn't get that much worse. Ha! Makeovers are easy to decide on when you don't have much to lose.

Mostly what I was worried about in painting my own cabinets were these three things: 1. Having to sand. I hate sanding, and I know for myself that getting all of the dust off of something you've sanded is nearly impossible. 2 My cabinets are part wood and part laminate (the ends are laminate) and so I needed something that could cover both equally well. 3. I was worried about wood grain showing through the paint. After looking at all of the reviews of the Rustoleum kits I was able to learn that 1. the kit required no sanding or priming (just a really stiff cleaning with a deglosser) 2. Their paint system covers wood and laminate, score! and 3. I saw pictures of other people's oak cabinets and decided that the wood grain didn't look too bad. So I went for it. I was still mostly nervous about the wood grain, but let me tell you, you really truly hardly notice it. If anything it really does look nicer because it looks like real wood instead of laminate. Trust me on this. I wasn't a believer either, but it looks a million times better. As for durability, so far so good. No chips to speak of!

Anyway, first I took everything down and labeled it as seen in the photo above

Once I got the doors off, I started to hear the siren song of open shelving. I thought to my self, "Self, you have lots of nice dishes, I bet you could get away with it." My Self agreed. But it was still trying to decide when I tried a new tactic. I said, "Self, that's way less doors to paint." And then Self gave me a high five and we did it.

You better believe the teriyaki shelves kept the doors on. I needed some kitchen privacy. I'm not crazy.

I even drew a little chart so I would know which doors went with which (because not all doors were banished as you'll see).

Then I decided to make my life about five million times harder and try to install vinyl Allure plank flooring. Mind you, this was all decided and bought and started before John got fairly deathly ill. My timing is impeccable (NOT). :)

this plug helped me decide to keep the doors over the microwave in tact as well

I filled most of these holes because I didn't like how they looked

Oh, sneak peak. First coat. I think this was of the first color, the cream color.

I painted them bit by bit. I would paint a coat on the doors and then paint a coat on the frames and then start all over and then flip and do it all again. Many many many times. Then you do the top protective coat. And then you cry for mercy while rocking in the fetal position...

ah ha! you can now see the color I picked for the lower cabinets. It's a lovely blue gray color. But I show you this picture to show you how our floor stayed for over a month while we tried to get John healed (still working on it. In fact, he had to go to the ER again tonight, long story, but he's okay). Finally I put an ad on craigslist to trade a photoshoot for a finished floor. A pro flooring guy's wife answered the ad and convinced him to do it, awesome! It was the best trade I ever made in my life.

Although one might argue, upon seeing this picture of me that I insisted on taking of myself during the work process, that a trade for a personal makeover might have been of better use, but one major project at a time people...

Here it comes, The Kitchen Reveal in three parts

2011-10-16T18:12:00.000-07:00

Why in three parts? Well let's face it folks, this project took me so long that I need to milk it for as many blog posts as possible. Also, I have too many pictures for one post.

So anyway, here are the before pictures. This is what my kitchen looked like. When you hear the term "builder basic" this is the picture you get in your mind, right? There is nothing wrong with this kitchen, but it didn't make my heart flip flop or tap dance or anything. I don't know about you, but if my heart doesn't tap dance when it's in the kitchen, a whole lot less of dishes get done.

It's kinda fun to look back at these because I'm already used to how it is now and it looks so blah to me now that I look at the befores!

The white sink kinda bugged me before, but once I switched out the cheapy faucet for a new one, all of the sudden I pretended like the white sink was a farmhouse sink. (i have a good imagination).

doo doo doo, just biding your time until the after pictures aren't you

because my after shots will look SO much better if you see my before pictures with a dirty sink ha

and despite what it looks like, this is a picture of a CLEAN floor. ugh, gross I know. oh wait, there are two pieces of dirt or something there now that I look at it. Well, ahem, that's clean for us. the floor just always looked dirty with this linoleum

the table, pre-paint, and pre-chair switch, and pre-dumpter dive armoire.

Let's move on to the next post shall we? The one where you see how hard I worked.

Who's a Winner, I'm a winner!!

2011-10-14T19:14:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it, but I actually WON something!! I stopped entering blog giveaways about a year ago because I never won and I'm a sore non-winner so I gave up. Then I was on one of my bloggy reads about a week ago and it was for a $100 gift card to Wal-mart. So I said to myself, "Self, you sure could use one hundred dollars right now. Self, enter that contest." I entered and then completely forgot.

Fast forward a week or so and I was reading said blog again and just happened to read at the bottom the winner was my username. I thought, uh, maybe someone else has that username. And then I clicked on it and it linked to this blog! Woo-hoo!!! This story is only complete by telling you that I may or may not have been reading this on the Ipad in the bathroom, and John may or may not have thought I had lost some serious marbles when I started yelling (from the bathroom) I WON I WON I WON!!!!! laugh out loud folks

Anyway, it was the perfect end to a really great day. Today was the annual Savage family pumpkin patch extravaganza. Anyone that has known us for any amount of time knows that this outing is sacred to the Savage clan. We actually went to a first patch and they were open only to schools (so annoying!) but we didn't give up and went another forty five minutes for a different patch. We are dedicated pumpkiners. Make no mistake.

Feel free to skip the photos. I just feel sorry for you if you do skip them. Grant and Madeline were looking particularly scrumptious today.

OH MY CUTE!

The little shoesies

Getting ready to hit the patch

Hark, a bounce castle!

The next three pictures crack me up

So do these next three. It's like a series of photos. Maddy's faces are the best

I like how her feet are perfectly flat

The best part was that we could hear Maddy at the top of the slide, before going down, giving herself the following pep talk: "Come on, you can do it. It's just a slide! Don't be scared." hahaha SO cute and funny

This one is for my little brother. we got a little lost and it was fun

we found...the corn!!

I made him take a picture of me and the bubs

can you see that john has lost weight. I can tell in his face

love John's face, Maddy's makes me laugh

because i love you all so much i want you to laugh as much as possible. I seriously don't know what I was doing in this picture

this cracks me up

look at Maddy's face!! ha!

oh I love him so much my heart hurts

my boys. love love love

we kept trying to freak maddy out during the hayride, but she kept saying, that's not real. busted

grant chewing on dad's finger. business as usual

ah the monster's mouth!

uh, creepy

the ghost forest!

oooooooo....BOO!

blair witch project picture. don't go in the forest alone!

favorite picture ever

picking out the pumpkin

she kept saying the pumpkins were either too big, too small, or too royal. too royal? I dunno what that means, don't ask me

she found THE pumpkin

true love

don't try to take it away

the baby is the same size as the pumpkins. couldn't you gobble him up??

he basically refused to acknowledge my presence

see?

that looks a lot like what he'll probably look at me like when he's a teenager. to me it says something to the effect of, "mom, you're ruining my life."

and this is Maddy's face telling me that I'm ruining her life because "we think grant's the cutest."

haha, and thus ended the great pumpkin patch adventure. it was a MUCH needed break.

Hey, I'm back!!

2011-10-12T17:08:00.000-07:00

and better than ever. Or something close to that.

Well it would be an understatement to say that these past few weeks (months) have been stressful. But, I would like to think we are starting to turn a corner. John has been out of the hospital since last Friday (or was it Saturday? I honestly can't remember ha!) and he has been on a soft foods/liquid diet. He has been doing good.

Okay, so that's the health update. We are so grateful to be getting John back to his old self, because I have felt like a single mom these past few weeks and I never want to go back.

So what else have I been up to you say?

Oh not much. I just decided to re-do our playroom. Why? Well, because, um, mental health reasons. I needed something to take my mind off of stuff. A project does that. Plus, I had some ideas for better storage for Maddy's toys. Before we had one of those ikea toy storage units. It was just too hard for Maddy to dig through the big bins and find what she was looking for, so she just wouldn't play with the stuff in them.

the ikea bin of chaos

Here are a few before pictures (really before, like a few from before we even painted the room green and did the board and batten treatment).

Trying to decide on the colors

The room before paint. shudder with me folks

Still a before picture, but at least we had it painted by this point

BEFORE photo. This was the point that our playroom was at, but it just wasn't being used as much as I was hoping, and it still looked blah to me. You know me, I like some Wow factor. Or crazy factor as John likes to call it. eh, tomato, tomahto. :)

So, in order to not spend too much out of pocket money, I decided to sell some stuff (like the ikea toy storage) on craigslist in order to payroll the makeover. I tried to do things pretty cheaply in this room. Lots of stuff I already had. Let's look at the abundance of photos I took. You knew they were coming.

A couple of walmart white boards (super cheap) to hang drying art. Maddy loves to paint so this was something I wanted to add for a long time. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do. I didn't want something with push pins for obvious reasons. Thank goodness for magnets. I got some that looked just like push pins because it appealed to my dumb sense of humor.

This is how Maddy draws people these days. Our house is literally covered in these people. So cute.

I told John my dream was to make a mini childrens museum in our playroom. I think he thought I was kidding....behold the mailbox I made him mount on our wall. Another cheap walmart purchase.

For the pesky huge toys that won't fit on shelves, enter the large plastic bucket hidden behind the door.

Wahoo!!! I thought about putting the usual PLAY or FUN or AREN'T WE SO PRECIOUS FOR PUTTING LETTERS ON OUR WALL, but Wahoo all capitalized like that seemed so sarcastic and yet fun that it was perfect. I gotta get my kicks where I can people.

I originally bought a bunch of ugly bins at Walmart and they cost more than the cheap walmart bookshelves and I was annoyed. So I went onto Target.com and found these bins which were not only cheaper but cuter and fit more stuff. Score and double score. I wasn't sure about the colors, but in the end I like 'em. Oh, and Grant likes to dump the toys off the bottom shelves, so we put stuff down there that is for him. It's adorable.

Oh canisters of art supplies. How you make my little heart sing.

Goodwill globe stolen from Maddy's room.

Getting fancy with the angles.

Lincoln Log Preserves. Yummmm.

My craigslist chair find. Don't laugh, I'm going to try to slipcover it (really really simplistic slipcover....) John saw it and called it "chintzy." I'll chintzy you mister.

Now we move on to my favorite parts of the room. Welcome to Grant's Groceries (maddy helped paint this. cute)

I got that white bin at D.I. five million years ago and always intended to use it for this very purpose. It only took me five million years to paint over it's dark green crackle paint and use it.

This has been used all over the house too. It landed here for now.

Oh, this makes my little heart so happy.

Yes, we did have to make a rule about how many gumballs Maddy could eat. No, she hasn't followed that rule at all.

I found this little basket at Goodwill and was SO excited. I knew just where it was going. Sunflowers from the dollar store of course. Do people buy fake flowers anywhere else?? (or fake grapes for that matter....)

We used her ikea table as her register area and her post office headquarters.

Blue mailbox was a consignment store find. Postal scale was a Goodwill find.

Want to come into Madeline's Cafe? Funny thing? I used to go to a restaurant with my friend Emily called Le Madeleines for lunch quite a bit. So this sign kinda reminds me of that. This thing was actually a mirror and I was going to use it to do an area of dress up for Maddy and then it broke. So I improvised and it is now a very simple sign.

It started off being gold, but then I dry-brushed it with a sort of verdigris color paint. Muy bueno.

Fake LED candle (you guessed it) dollar store. Glass vase bottle Goodwill. I loved the tiny clipboard when I found it. It has already been used to take orders.

I'm sorry, not to get off topic here, but I kinda hate the name Pinkalicious. The books are cute, but it sounds like some sort of Britney Spears song. Something like, Pinkalicious you're delicious....ugh, see what I mean????

Makes me want to sit down at a bistro and order a macaroon. Or club sandwich.

Oh yeah, did I mention I made a STINKING AWESOME canopy all by my little dang self???? Oh, offhandedly, yeah I did.

Fabric was on super Columbus Day sale. Maddy loves it.

I didn't sew it, so the edges are raw. But my friends it is made from outdoor fabric so it's like canvas and not likely to unravel. Besides...um, this blog is called pretend fancy for a reason, remember?

I made it using a wrapping paper tube and fishing wire

cut little holes into the top and wired the fishing line through

and hung it to a hook on the ceiling. It took some time, but I love how it turned out. I'm sure you couldn't tell.

Table in the middle of the room for art projects/Mom sewing projects.

You probably remember this bed from the last time I made over the playroom. It stayed the same because it's awesome.

Then I snuck up and took pictures while it was in use. The girls loved it.

There you go folks. And I bet I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "hmm, this is all well and good, but wasn't she redoing her kitchen, what happened to that?" To which I answer it is coming. The floor is finished (thanks to a craigslist trade we got a professional to come and finish them for us in trade for a family photoshoot, awesome), but we need to put back up the shoe molding. After that she's all yours. And bytheway, I love it. But not as much as I love a healthy husband.

pictures with heeelarious commentary (or something)

2011-09-29T09:44:00.000-07:00

I don't trust myself to blog these days, so I'll let the pictures do their own talking. These are the rest of the photos from our visit to Cypress Gardens, the coolest alligator place ever.

bullet pops make everything better

babies make everything cuter

Maddy has an obsession with the movie Rio. This is Rio (what she calls the main character bird who is actually named Blue)

we took a boat road with our guide named Cowboy

if you take my picture, I'll take yours lady

Grandma and Maddy

We had to duck to get under these, Well everyone except for Grant

then I peed my pants, thus a blurry photo

they were literally this close to us. it freaked me out.

I told my Mother-in-law this would not be used to blackmail purposes. I hope she doesn't consider posting it on my public blog blackmail purposes

No really, don't touch the duck, punk

ah, a caterpillar!

a crazy looking flower

the infamous duck. he's so famous, he INfamous

Okay, I never promised to not use this one for blackmail hahahaha Jane was amazed by the butterfly house :)

Can you spot the butterfly flying in this one? I thought it looked so cool

no butterflies were harmed in the filming of this picture

bees! Maddy also asked me today, how do bees smell the flowers mommy? I'm not really sure, I bet Grandpa Gordon the beekeeper knows, we'll ask him

We found a secret stash of eggs.

It is surprisingly hard to get a picture of a butterfly I'll have you know

she's so cute.

we made her put her face into every single one of these

then she started thinking she had to stick her face into everything for a picture

i love this picture

don't be jealous, but those shoes light up

we'll SEE you next time.

I just can't sleep

2011-09-22T22:33:00.000-07:00

I know I'm going to pay for this post tomorrow for not forcing myself to sleep, but I tossed and turned forever and thought that maybe if I typed some of my thoughts out that I might be able to finally rest. I don't even want to talk about John's doctor appointments today. They did not go as planned (ha well as planned by me anyway) and I am feeling frustrated and too stressed out about that to talk about it again.

Instead I want to talk about my beach vacation. It was amazing. I haven't talked about it or posted pictures because I wanted to get everything looking so great, but let's be real here, that's not going to happen for a while the way things are going around here ha! Instead I'll just reminisce outloud.

My favorite parts of the trip down to Hilton Head are too numerous to name. I was SO happy that Mom and Gordon came with us. Not only were they lifesavers when John ended up being really sick during the vacation (and spent most of the time resting in the room or going to the doctors), but they were also so fun to be with. The thing I loved about vacationing with them is that they didn't have any expectations going into the vacation about what they wanted to do or see. Our whole purpose (and theirs) was just to simply relax and go with the flow. So everyday we just did what we thought sounded good that day, no stress. It was amazing.

So not a one of these pictures is edited except for changing some to black and white for fun.

This picture cracked me up, Grandma and Grandpa taking pictures of adorable Grant.

You'd think she rode and won the Kentucky Derby with the number of pictures I took of her first pony ride. She's such a huge horse fan I had to take this many.

Her pony's name was Apache. Though he would be dubbed far greater names in later retellings of the story by Maddy herself. To her, he will always be a noble steed. Not a tiny ragamuffin pony.

Most days we woke up, got everyone in their suits and sunscreenn, loaded up the beach cart and then walked straight from our hotelto the beach. It was a short walk, hallelujah! We then played on the beach for a few hours, searching for tiny crabs and seashells and then we usually loaded up our stuff and walked a few steps to the hotel where we rinsed off outside and then sat by the pool! We ordered lunch by the pool several days, and you better believe that I ordered a fruity drink every single day by the pool. It was my splurge. Maddy would eat on the go and then jump right back into the pool. The adults took turns swimming with her and sitting on the beach chairs relaxing. It was heaven.

That's me, keeping it real with my swimsuit on. Ow ow!

Grant on the beach playing with my keys.

Grant after he takes a big ol' handful of sand and shoves it in his mouth while I wasn't looking. Great parenting at it's finest. He enjoyed it as you can see.

Grandpa G. listening to some books from his Ipad by the pool

Mom ordered the "cookies and cream monster" and then couldn't figure out why it was blue. Cookie monster mom....coooookie monster. Then she got it and cracked up. I crack up just looking at Gordon shoving his cone into the picture too. These two are so fun to hang out with.

One day we went to a stable and took Maddy on her first pony ride. We also went to a lighthouse and for an ice cream cone at the Salty Dog. But most of all, we relaxed. It was so so so nice. I am already figuring out how to get more of my siblings to come next year because it is such a great place to vacation with kids. The weather was perfect for us and the waves were great for little kids. Plus, since we got our rooms on priceline, the vacation was actually pretty cheap since we were only about two hours away driving distance. Even with poor John being sick, he said he had a great time too and was surprised how much he enjoyed going to the beach. He's usually a die-hard Disney fan that doesn't want to vacation anywhere else. I think I convinced him that this is about five hundred percent better (although you know we still love disney, just not for the official vacations every single year).

The pool at night.

It was right on the beach. Sigh, so nice. :)

Trying to be a good sport despite being sick.

Maddy giving him some love because she missed him while he was at the hospital getting tests done. Poor John.

These are dark, sorry, but there we are, a happy family. Mom snapped these.

Well, I snapped this one. It was getting kinda dark by the time we remembered to take photos.

I love the look of adoration on Grant's face in this one. That is how he stares at Maddy ALL day. He is so in love with her. She gets embarrassed by the attention and tries to ignore him lol!

My sweet boy. Oh how I love him.

The cute parents. Also dark, sorry!

So yeah, I have lots of pictures, so here's a few for now and I'll post more later. (aka the pretty ones that I edit)

also on my list to tell you about? John's Mom flying out to help us during "the surgery" (that never happened and may still happen in the future ugh) and visiting Cypress Gardens (recommended by a good friend and absolutely a treasure!!). I saw lots of alligators, lots of butterflies in the butterfly house, and Maddy and Grant had a great time. I also need to tell you how I recovered a roman shade for my kitchen, made a knock-off horse weathervane statue thing out of foam core board, and remind me to tell you how I almost killed someone with a piece of flying crown molding. Maybe we should forget that last one....

But mostly, is anyone out there still reading? Did I lose everyone in this, the twentieth move of my blog? I know my friends are making fun of me in their heads, and I know I'm pretty loser-ish for moving my blog again, but someone out there still loves me and my wordy posts right? (kendra, don't make fun of the wordy part....) :)

Could this be the best cheapskate deal I ever got?

2011-09-22T08:55:00.000-07:00

Hi friends, I'm back. To update the John health saga, he has been feeling pretty good, but he is still on a soft foods diet. He is having a follow-up endoscopy today because they need to see if it is healing and they also aren't sure how he got an ulcer because both of the normal tests came back negative. So fingers crossed that things are healing.

Next, I have to brag a little. I have been having some amazing luck lately in terms of craigslist. I have been dreaming about doing a couple of fancy things to our pretend fancy (aka elbow grease and hard work DIY) kitchen makeover. I have been dreaming of 1. finishing our floors. They are halfway done, but we are losing steam. 2. A new fancy bridge faucet. Don't know what a bridge faucet is? I'll show you a picture in a second. and 3. a new chandelier to hang over my white table and red chairs.

So the other day I decided to do something crazy and put an ad on craigslist to offer a photoshoot up for barter for someone to come and finish our flooring. I think John thought it was kinda funny because it's such a specific trade and I don't think he thought anything would come of it. Well I got several responses! I am going to be talking to a flooring contractor later today about trading because he wants some photos with his sons! His wife saw the listing and I've been emailing her back and forth. How is that for awesome! The best part is that we left all of the tricky bits for him to do (lots of angles and flooring transistions).

So after that luck, I went on down my wish list. I had already searched for my dream faucet before, but let's face it, who would get rid of a faucet like that? They are pretty popular right now. Well you can of course guess that I found one! Even better, I emailed the guy to see if he would take less (he said he would) and found out that he's a plumber and will install it for us for a little bit extra! He's coming on Monday to install. Here's what the faucet looks like:

Dreamy right? Oh wait, I'm the only one who thinks faucets are dreamy??

Next, I wanted a chandelier. Our old one looked like this and was hung WAY too high:

I found a few promising fixtures on craigslist, but they were still more than I wanted to pay ($35 was too rich for my blood, I told you, I'm cheap!) So I went over to the Habitat for Humanity Restore to see if they had anything. I fell in love. I bought the fixture and hoped John wouldn't kill me since I was going to make him figure out how to wire it. :) He was a great sport about it and even gave in to me asking him to hang it last night. It turned out AMAZING. So amazing that I had to capitalize that entire word. I was online today looking over other chandeliers and found one that looks almost exactly like the one I got for twenty bucks. The price tag on this one? $651. SCORE!! I'm not showing your ours yet because you will see other projects I've been working on and I'm saving those up. But here is a picture of the chandelier that looks very similar. We put shades on ours.

So the moral of the story is to be patient and check out the cheap places. Also, it never hurts to try. So many people are afraid to just try, afraid that they'll mess something up. That, my friends, is no way to live. Take a little risk. Life is too short to be afraid of small things like light fixtures.

This courage is brought to you by a postcard I got in the mail recently from a dear friend. Thank you friend, it was one of the nicest notes I've received in a long time. Here is the quote she sent me:

"The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers.  But above all, the world needs dreamers who do."  ~Sarah Ban Breathnach

I hope her words inspire you to try something you're a little scared to tackle like they did for me. :) 

Normal sounds really nice about now

2011-09-19T06:57:00.000-07:00

A quick update. The good news is John is out of the hospital since Saturday afternoon. No surgery required! (at this time anyway). We are keeping a close eye on him and he is on a pretty strict liquid/soft food diet for a while until his ulcer tries to heal itself with some medicine and time. Hopefully we will be able to avoid the big surgery because it would have been a doozy. Funnily, before John had this, I didn't even know ulcers ever required surgery. His ulcer was in a very unusual place (between the stomach and intestines) and it was keeping his food from draining properly--hence his inability to keep any food down. So far he has been doing really well on his limited diet and hasn't had any pain or throwing up, so we are keeping our fingers crossed. It has been a roller coaster of a weekend. Oh and to top it off, when I got home after John got released from the hospital that evening, I realized at 7:30 p.m. that Grant was not acting like his usual self and I suspected an ear infection. We ran out the door to get to the Urgent Care before it closed, and wouldn't you know it, we have a baby with an ear infection. We all know the saying when it rains it pours, so really, we're not that surprised. Too bad all of the nearby pharmacies were closed and we had to do a late night search for 24 hour pharmacies. The silver lining to that is that of course pharmacies have amazing candy selections so I bought some red vines and various other treats for ourselves and for John's Mom who has been here graciously helping us.

So that's the news. Sorry no pretty pictures. Sorry no kitchen reveal. Sorry no chipper blog post. We're just trying to get back to normal around here. Normal sounds gooooood. :)

Random Thoughts

2011-09-14T07:31:00.000-07:00

things going through my head lately:

mo' money mo' problems? I would like to try this for myself and see if it's true.

wondering if hanging a chandelier is hard.

searching the usual cheap-skate spots for a chandelier.

need to refill my thyroid medication because I am dragging.

I miss having my close friends close by.

Really hoping John's doctor figures things out magically today, because they won't schedule the tests until after an initial consult.

My doctor wants me to do a sleep study and I am on the fence about being super excited to have a night of uninterrupted sleep, but kind of freaked out to 1. have someone I don't know watch me sleep/drool on my pillow and 2. try to sleep with all of those wires attached. Plus I need to make sure insurance is going to cover it.

Maddy wakes up in the middle of the night, sneaks into our room and steals the Ipad. We've tried hiding it while it charges and she has found it in the past. Last night? Victory! (unless you count the fact that I had to get up and calm her down over her failure to find it. In which case, Not Victory!)

I had a dream last night that me, one of my good friends, and my little brother were all smoking cigarettes. It was weird, because we are all, in real life, good ol' practicing mormons and in my dream we discovered each other smoked all at the same time. I woke up feeling really guilty until I realized, uh duh, it was just a dream, I've never smoked in my life. Strange.

I was pretty sick two nights ago. Throw up sick. I felt pregnant again and panicked because that's not supposed to happen. Then I got excited that maybe it happened. And then I felt let down because it didn't happen. Being a woman is hard.

I'm thinking of opening up my photography business again and doing mini-christmas photoshoots for people around here. Not sure though.

Why can I never think of what I want to cook for dinner? I really dislike that part of the day.

Okay, baby G is awake and he is super smiley when he wakes up and I love that part of the day.

this is for my sister

2011-09-12T14:35:00.000-07:00

who works and is sometimes bored. I just thought I'd pop on to say that I have a curtains crush on this blog: http://missmustardseed.blogspot.com/2010/07/do-you-really-think-im-mean.html

I also have a crush on her light fixture. I think those curtains would look amazing in my living room, where I have my plain jane light blocking curtains that I can't get rid of. But maybe I could cut off the grommets on top and use them as liners to this fabric? Too bad it's kinda pricey and I would need a lot....Or maybe this fabric would look better than what I have in my new dining room. Thoughts?

Kelly, this is how you know I love you, I post stuff no one else cares about, just for you. I'm patting myself on the back as we speak.... ha